Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen in collaboration with Jaspers-Eyers Architects, has won the competition to design the new headquarters of the Flemish Radio and Television (VRT) in the future Media Park in Brussels. This project is the result of a year-long competition and dialogue, and was developed within “VRT Morgen” team that also includes Bureau Bas Smets, Tractebel, CES, Ideal Acoustics, Willemen Construct, Jan De Nul Group and EEG. The new VRT headquarters building has a total area of about 65,000 m² of which 40,000 m² is above ground. It is due to open by summer 2026.  

Image by Filippo Bolognese.

The Fabricated Landscape exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburg, USA will feature OFFICE 15: Border Garden, OFFICE 119: Villa (Der Bau) and OFFICE 126: Centres for Traditional Music. The exhibition was curated by Raymund Ryan and showcases the work from ten international practices, focusing on the ways they relate to local communities and the natural environments in which they exist. The exhibition will be on view at CMOA Heinz Architectural Center, from Jun 26th 2021 to Jan 17th 2022.

The steel construction of OFFICE 280: BREWERY in Brussels has been installed. The industrially painted roofing sheets recall the graphic identity of Brussels Beer Project (BBP) and already announce the future headquarters of the company along the canal in Anderlecht as a first milestone within the rapidly redeveloping industrial zone of Port Sud. The building houses the complete beer production process, but is also open to the public. In addition, a new beer garden is proposed to the south of the building as a new public space for the city of Brussels. It is conceived as a compact and efficient industrial container, a rectangular box with an inclined roof that reveals its content. The section of varying height accommodates a highly compact multi-level arrangement of the brewing machinery and vats in a series of table-like platforms connected with stairs. Akin to large pieces of furniture, these elements populate the space and are visible through the large glazed facade. The open plan enables a flexible organisation that can be altered as the technological requirements evolve.

The demolition phase of the project SHS Halls School in Antwerp is now completed. The project, an ecological transformation of the durable structure of an old slaughter house by the canal Lobroekdok in the north of Antwerp, converts the existing structure into a new chemistry campus for Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool. The project reorganises the building into a set of classrooms and laboratories by adding an additional storey to the building with a new self supporting concrete plate that sits on round columns. Mezzanine structures are added on top of this new floor to use the height of the existing shed roof for technical utilities. The newly proposed circular pattern perforates the existing facade, transforming the previous utilitarian structure into a qualitative environment for education. In addition, a new tower building proposed next door will accomodate classrooms and administration.

In collaboration with Jaspers Eyers for Triple Living and Immobel.

The construction of OFFICE 229: LIBRARY  in Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium has started. The project is first of all a central gathering point. In the tradition of the cultural center, the library is set up as a large living space, shared by the residents of the municipality. A saddle-shaped roof is delimited by a circular perimeter. The perimeter cuts the roof shape into a distinctive figure in the center of the municipality, as anchor point, along the main public road. The rounded perimeter makes the main space of the library building. The library cabinets inside are built alongside and also carry the roof. The wooden cabinet wall defines the separation line between library spaces and municipality. In the round perimeter, a square figure makes both the reading garden and the polyvalent hall for the school. The reading garden is the center of the library, as the ‘biggest room in the biggest house’ in the town.

Photo by We Document Art.

Two venues in the Venice Biennale 2021 showcase projects from OFFICE. OFFICE 229: LIBRARY is among the selection of projects at the Composite Presence exhibition in the Belgian pavilion curated by Dirk Somers of Bovenbouw Architectuur, in collaboration with Flanders Architecture Institute. OFFICE 126:CENTRES FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC, along with OFFICE 133: PEARL PATH, in collaboration with Bureau Bas Smets, is featured in the exhibition titled In Muharraq in the Bahrain pavilion, curated by Noura Al Sayeh and Ghassan Chemali. The projects included in the Bahrain pavilion were part of Revitalisation of Muharraq, the winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2019. Both exhibitions will be on view until 21st November 2021.

The latest issue of AV Monographs is devoted to OFFICE and features a selection of 24 projects, as well as texts by Luis Fernández-Galiano and Jean-Louis Cohen. The issue can be purchased online and will be available in stores shortly.

The first edition of Everything series records a year-long project conducted by the studios led by Kersten Geers at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. This limited edition has been published by Humboldt books and is available for purchase here. The entire set was designed by Joris Kritis. 

Kersten Geers will present the work of OFFICE at the Cornell University Department of Architecture. The lecture will be virtual and will take place on March 31^st at 11.15pm CET time. The lecture will be open to audience upon online registration. More info here.

‘Tondo’ is a footbridge in the centre of Brussels that connects the Federal Government offices of the Chamber of Representatives with its recent extension, the Forum building. You can see the time-lapse of its construction here.

New address:
Wetstraat 26 Rue de la Loi , B−1040 Brussels

The foundation works of the new building for RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse) are under way. Positioned in the heart of the double campus of EPF and UNI Lausanne, next to SANAA’s Rolex Learning Centre, the new RTS building consists of four separate volumes supporting a disc-like slab suspended 7m above ground. The project was the winning proposal of an international competition held six years ago and is expected to be delivered by 2024.

In collaboration with Jaspers-Eyers Architects and developed for Immobel.

The pedestrian overpass designed by OFFICE is nearing completion. This overpass is part of the project for the revitalisation of Muharraq in Bahrain, which received the Aga Khan award, and which among other built structures includes OFFICE 126: Centres for Traditional Music and OFFICE 133: Pearl Path (in collaboration with Bureau Bas Smets). Once completed, the overpass will play a pivotal role in reconnecting the old Arabic city and its coastlines, providing visitors access to the historical site of Fort Bu Maher.

The Public Office building for the city of Kortrijk has been completed. The project commenced six years ago as a transformation of an existing office building. The intervention included a complete alteration of the façade, converting it into an exemplary low-carbon building, while preserving the original structure.The facade acts as a technical device, with a vast array of ducts and machinery concealed in a sequence of hollow concrete pilasters. The new facade also supports a series of partly perforated concrete slabs of varying depth, which serve as terraces or to provide protection from the sun.

Finnish design company Artek, architecture practices OFFICE and studio näv were selected to develop benches for the Woodland Cemetery. The new benches will be scattered throughout this UNESCO World Heritage site designed by Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz, complementing the existing exterior seating. Each set comprises a bench and a stool, both with seats and backrests made of cork – a natural material that provides comfort and warmth, while complying with all the sustainability requirements. The furniture is currently in its final stage of development, and is planned to be installed at the cemetery mid 2021.

David Van Severen will be giving a lecture with a focus around building projects in Bahrain. The event is organised by “In Practice”, a research group of practising architects and a joint initiative of KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture and U Liège Faculty of Architecture.

The lecture will take place on October 22^nd at 18.00 at CIVA Brussels -Kanal. The entrance is free upon reservation and you can find more info here.

Kersten Geers will present the work of OFFICE at the Faculty of Architecture La Cambre Horta in Brussels. The lecture will take place on October 8^th at 8.30pm. In compliance with the new sanitary regulations, the places will be limited upon registration, and the lecture will be broadcasted live. More info here.

Architecture Without Content – a set of thirty-three studios led by Kersten Geers over the past eight years in various schools including EPF Lausanne, GSAPP Columbia University, Harvard GSD, Yale School of Architecture, and Academy of Architecture Mendrisio – has come to an end. On that occasion, the twelve missing editions of the series have been published by Walther König, and are available for purchase here. The entire set was designed by Joris Kritis.

We are happy to announce that the construction of OFFICE 174: Caserne De Reuilly is completed. Part of a large-scale urban renewal, done in collaboration with NP2F, the project comprises a set of three new buildings and a renovation of an old caserne. The total development by Paris Habitat integrates more than 500 housing units, communal services, artist ateliers, commercial spaces and a public central garden to the city center of Paris. French artist duo Daniel Dewar and Gregory Gicquel contributed an original site-specific artwork for the three entrance halls.

OFFICE, together with LPAA and Eiffage, has won the competition for a housing block in Strasbourg. Located in the historical port area around the Vauban basin along the Rhein, the project is a single large building which relates to the adjacent silos and large industrial structures. The volume has 45-degree cuts in the corners, allowing a multi-directional facade which orients to the various elements around the port, while the structural grid superimposed on the facade acts as a mediator between the scale of the inhabitants and that of the surrounding industrial landscape.

We are proud to announce the December issue of a+u on OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen

The issue features 25 projects, including some of the latest OFFICE work which is currently under construction, as well as an essay by Mark Lee and an interview with Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. The issue can be purchased online and will be available in stores shortly.

Kersten Geers will present the work of OFFICE at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, where he has recently been appointed as a Full Professor. The lecture will take place on November 21^st at 7.30pm. You can find more info here

David Van Severen will present the works of OFFICE in a lecture’Everything Architecture’, organised by Stockholms Arkitektförening through Christin Svensson and Jesús Azpeitia.

The event will take place in the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm on November 14^th. The lecture will be free of charge and will start at 6pm. You can find more info here.

Kersten Geers will give a lecture at the University of Miami School of Architecture, as part of Tecnoglass lecture series.

The event will take place in the Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center on November 6^th and is scheduled to start at 6.30pm. You can find more info here.

Our proposal ‘KAMERS VOOR DESIGN’ (Rooms for Design) came 2nd place in the selected competition for the extension of the Design Museum in Gent. The project proposed to solve the highly ambitious and complex set of questions posed by the context and the brief by a simple act, the stacking of various geometrical figures one on top of each other. Together with a concrete slab defined by the perimeter of the site, these figures offer various spaces on each floor – a clearly defined room with the main museum functions, terraces as residue spaces of the slab, and anti-chambers on the courtyard side, solving the complex question of circulation through 3 different parts of the museum. Finally, this stacking of rooms allows to create a respective addition to the existing facade on the courtyard side while giving a dynamic and interactive face towards the city of Gent.

In collaboration with Richard Venlet, muller van severen, Bollinger+Grohmann, Henk Pijpaert, Bureau Bouwtechniek, Jan De Moffarts, Thomas Stroobants, and Maniera.

The steel roof structure of OFFICE 227: Tondo has been installed on the site. OFFICE has previously won the competition for the Federal Belgian government.  This elevated footbridge connects the House of Representatives’ offices with its recent extension, the new Forum Building, on the other side of the Leuvensestraat in the centre of Brussels. The bridge not only surmounts the height difference between the two buildings with a single accessible slope, but provides a generous space, rather than simply a technical solution. Suspended over the street, the tilted disc will be coated with mirrored panels, concealing its interior, while reflecting the surrounding. The oculus will be finished in curved glass. The construction is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

OFFICE 126: Centres for Traditional Music, OFFICE 130: Solo House and OFFICE 176: Campus RTS are among the projects presented at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019: The Poetics of Reason.

The projects are shown within the framework of the exhibitions ‘Economy of Means’ curated by Eric Lapierre, and ‘What is Ornament?” curated by Giovanni Piovene and Ambra Fabi. The exhibition will be open from 3 October to 2 December 2019. You can find more info here.

Kersten Geers and David Van Severen have been appointed the Kenzo Tange Chair at GSD Harvard for the fall 2019 semester. This will be the second studio of a series focusing on American Architecture. After An American Plan, the investigation into simple drawing tools of architecture continues with An American Section. Following up on the notion of American corporate education, it raises a question for Harvard campus: how to embrace the reality of market development, tech startups, medical and biological research centers, without renouncing the collective values of an educational facility. If an architectural ambition can be reduced to the detail of an envelope, then the section seems to be the right tool.

OFFICE 280: Brussels Beer Project is among five projects selected by Brussels Bouwmeester Kristiaan Borret for the exhibition Brussels at Work: Building the Productive City, which has been presented at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.

After thirty-three iterations of Architecture Without Content, of which twelve studios led by Kersten Geers were held at EPFL, the time is right to move on. Architecture Without Content: Epilogue will recap, and at the same time put to test some of the recurring themes, by proposing a replacement to the School of Architecture at EPF Lausanne campus. In parallel, a new studio will kick off at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, embracing an all-inclusive fiction of European Architecture, with its first iteration of a comprehensive studies of TUTTO.

OFFICE is proud to announce that the Revitalisation of Muharraq in Bahrain, which among other built structures includes OFFICE 126: Centres for Traditional Music and OFFICE 133: Pearl Path, a collaboration with Bureau Bas Smets, is one of six winning projects of this year’s Aga Khan award. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is a triennial award established in 1977 to celebrate architectural projects that “successfully address the needs and aspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence”. This year marks the fourteenth cycle of the programme, with winners chosen by a committee including David Chipperfield, Elizabeth Diller and David Adjaye, headed by Aga Khan.

Photo by Ahmed Al Jishi.

OFFICE 15: Border Crossing is among more than 40 international projects, presented in the exhibition ‘Inservitude’ at arc en rêve centre d’architecture in Bordeaux, France. The exhibition is part of the cultural season ‘Liberté!’, and addresses the notion of freedom in architecture. The exhibition will be open from 19 June to 3 November 2019. You can find more info here.

OFFICE will present their work at Lunch with an Architect conference, organised by Forum Communication in collaboration with Flagey.

The event will take place in Flagey, on June 4^th at noon. You can find more info and book your tickets here.

Construction is underway on the crematorium in Oostende. A public guided visit will take place on May 19^th from 10am – 5pm. You can find more info on the Open Construction Day here. 

The steel structure of the footbridge connecting the two buildings of the Federal House of Representatives in Brussels, is now completed. It will be transported to the site in pieces and assembled there in three weeks.

OFFICE will present their recent projects within a series of talks Architecture on Stage, organised by the Architecture Foundation in partnership with the Barbican Centre.

The event will take place in the Barbican Centre in London, on the 30th of April from 8 – 10pm. You can find more info and book your tickets here.

After a brief and intense construction period of 8 months Tim Van Laere Gallery is nearing completion. The public opening is planned on April 20th. The project is a series of 5 rooms following each other, each with their own qualities in which contemporary art can be experienced in different ways.

The inaugarative show KUNST KUNST KUNST will host Adrian Ghenie, Jonathan Meese and Rinus Van de Velde. The doors open from 4-10pm, at 6pm there will be a live concert by Admiral Freebee.

In the framework of the exhibition ‘DUOS et DÉBATS Installations OFFICE versus Éric Lapierre Experience‘ at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris, OFFICE and Eric Lapierre will participate in a debate followed by a concert by Thurston Moore.

The event will take place in the Cité de l’Architecture et du patrimoine on the 9th of April from 7 – 11pm. To participate in the event, inscribe here.

OFFICE together with Bas Princen is part of the upcoming art route, Breugel’s eye : Reconstructing the Landscape in Dilbeek.  Their ‘Model for a Tower’ shows fragments of Bruegel’s ‘Tower of Babel’ in a forest environment. The juxtaposition of the two, the images and the forest, moves the viewer to a space in between where image blurs into reality. Dilbeek, part of the Flemish Region the Payottenland is the region which Bruegel frequently depicted in his landscape paintings. 15 installations by several artists will celebrate the anniversary.

OFFICE 245: Les Halles Généreuses, the winning proposal for a large scale industrial project situated at the north of Bordeaux, will be upon the 40 projects presented in the exhibition ‘Accessibles par nature, habiter entreprendre dans la mêtropole’. The exhibition will open on the 28th of March, 6PM at the arc en rêve centre d’architecture in Bordeaux, France.

OFFICE is currently working on a series of furniture together with the visual artist Pieter Vermeersch, for the Brussels based gallery MANIERA. The series has been developed with the assistance of the design studio Granstudio.

The furniture pieces will be on show at the MANIERA gallery from February 23rd until May 4th.

The installment of the exhibition ‘DUOS et DÉBATS Installations OFFICE versus Éric Lapierre Experience‘ will open this thursday alongside a debate session at the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine in Paris. The exhibition in which the theme ‘Faire le deuil du langage’ (the end of language) features several objects taken from both offices. From January 24th until May 5th 2019.

OFFICE has won the competition for a new brewery for Brussels Beer Project, a young local beer brewery with growing popularity in and beyond Belgium.  The winning proposal takes the opportunity of its location at the brim of the Brussels canal to the maximum. The project follows the concept of a ‘boîte magique’: a super efficient industrial container, topped with a large inclined roof, which makes its content visible to all sides. Rooted in the canal area of Brussels, the project communicates its strong character and ambition: a building dedicated to the production of 35 000 hl of beer per year, that willingly invites the public to witness and sample its products. OFFICE was chosen out of 52 candidatures and 4 final proposals, by a jury involving members of Canal Brussels, bMa and the BBP community, amongst others.

Construction on OFFICE 227: Tondo has started with the careful dismantling of certain elements of the 19th facade of the existing building. The project is a ring-shaped pedestrian bridge connecting the two buildings of the Federal House of Representatives in Brussels, on either side of the Leuvensestraat. Suspended between the facades of the two buildings, it makes a generous ‘walkabout’ around a central void. The first step in the construction consists of the careful dismantling of certain facade elements of the historic building.

OFFICE is part of the upcoming exhibition ‘Dichtelust: Forms of Urban Coexistence in Switzerland‘ at the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel (CH). The exhibition, which investigates the qualities of density in Swiss architecture projects, will feature images and the impressive competition model of OFFICE 176: Radio Télévision Suisse. From Nov 24th 2018 until May 5th 2019.

We very happy to learn that OFFICE 130: Solo House is nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2019. The full list of nominees will be announced on December 11th.

OFFICE is currently working on a mixed-use project for Yale Union, a Portland, Oregon (US) based contemporary art centre. Located on a seismic active zone, the existing brick buildings built in the early 1900’s prove to become structurally insufficient for today’s standards, and will need a so-called ‘seismic upgrade’. A new tower, containing a series of flexible rentable spaces as apartments, offices and artist studios, will provide both structural and financial support to the renovation of the existing complex.  Under the new volume, a large outdoor space open towards the street defines a new public interface for the complex: a room for Yale Union.

We’re proud to announce that construction has started on the new Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp (BE). The gallery will occupy a landmark position on the New South district, a project by developer Triple Living, not only through its location, but also through its function.

The building will be explicitly urban, ambiguous and direct: with its gate on the street. As a concatenation of rooms, the building ‘shows’ its structure in its silhouette. A storage space, offices, a white cube, a chapel and a patio follow each other, as pure types of buildings where art can be experienced in different ways. The building makes a statement for both its immediate surroundings and inside; art is the central focal point and is immediately visible and accessible to everyone.

“It will be a building tailored to art and the artists. They remain the most important motivation for me,” explains Tim Van Laere. “I consider Tim Van Laere Gallery as a real artist gallery, where our main task is to support and facilitate artists. It is very important that the space of the gallery also fits within that story.”

Completion and opening is planned in the spring of 2019. For more information on the project, see the article in De Morgen here (in Dutch).

Studios led by OFFICE have kicked off at both the Harvard School of Design, and in the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne. The studios are editions 31 and 32 of the ongoing ‘Architecture Without Content’ series. In Harvard, the studio ‘An American Plan‘ attempts to connect a fascination for the plan with a question for Harvard campus: is it possible to make a project for a Harvard forum of one floor? At EPFL, ‘Architecture for Museums’, a studio devoted to the work of Karl Friedrich Schinkel will travel to Naples and Berlin, investigating how a romantic obsession with the south could render classicism into an ‘urban’, or at least territorial, tool. As always, the results of the studios will be published as additions to the Architecture Without Content booklet series. Previous editions are available through the FORM shop.

Construction will start soon on the Vettenburg co-housing project, located in the city centre of Ghent (BE), with the building permit recently obtained. By a systematic composition of outdoor spaces, an old cluster of warehouses will be converted in a collection of atelier-houses and green spaces, weaving through the narrow deep building plot. The existing main building will be renovated and topped by a identical atelier-house, with views over the river front.

The second installment of the exhibition ‘“Besides, History — Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen”  organized by Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), will open tonight in the Serralves Foundation Library in Oporto, Portugal. In the show, OFFICE and Go Hasegawa investigate the meaning and role of ‘history’ in their architectural production, through a mutual conversation and  the appropriation and representation of each other’s work. For the opening night, curators Giovanna Borasi and Carles Muro will give a guided tour at 7 pm, followed by a cocktail reception.

E Depois, A Historia / Besides, History. June 28 until October 15. Serralves Foundation, Porto, PT. The catalogue of the exhibition is available through König books. Photo by Bas Princen.

‘Besides, History: Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen’, the catalogue of the exhibition by the same name, is now published in Japanese by Kajima Institute Publishing, in addition to the English version which was already available through König Books. Coordinated by editor Giovanna Borasi, OFFICE and Hasegawa reread, redrew, translated, and appropriated from the past and from each other in order to construct relationships and meaning out of a constellation of references.

We’re excited to announce the publication of ‘Besides, History: Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen’. This book, published by König books, functions as the catalogue of the exhibition by the same name which ran at CCA last year. Coordinated by editor Giovanna Borasi, OFFICE and Hasegawa reread, redrew, translated, and appropriated from the past and from each other in order to construct relationships and meaning out of a constellation of references. History becomes something that can be used rather than just studied.

Besides, History: Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, CA. Catalog edited by Giovanna Borasi. Contributed by Giovanna Borasi, Stefano Graziani, Bas Princen, Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers & David Van Severen. 15 x 21 cm. 208 p. With 121 (92 color) ills., Paperback. Published by König Books.

OFFICE has won the private competition for the construction of an olive oil mill on the Trebbio estate in Tuscany, IT. The site is a UNESCO heritage site, because of the ‘Villa del Trebbio’, the first of the Medici villa’s outside of Florence, and possibly the first renaissance villa in the world. The project, a small-scale state-of-the-art olive oil mill, is conceived as a spartan and modest industrial building in the middle of the olive groves. An inclined, circular roof scattered with rocks extracted from the surrounding fields, forms the main facade of the building.

In Ostend, construction is advancing on OFFICE 165: Crematorium. The building, a commission won in 2015 as the result of an Open Call competition, combines all public, administrative and technical spaces of the crematorium on a single layer, covered by an inclined concrete ‘table’-structure, of which the roof is the protagonist. Completion is expected mid-2019.

The building site of OFFICE 174: Caserne De Reuilly is advancing well, with the rough construction in place. The project by OFFICE in collaboration with NP2F is part of a large scale urban project with a total of 600 housing units, which will transform and convert a former closed military site, to a complex and vibrant piece of city, around a central public park. In OFFICE/NP2F’s project, which is currently under construction, new adjacent volumes are added to an existing wing of the Caserne de Reuilly, creating a total of 120 social housing units in a mix of old and new, complemented by integrated communal services.

The project is part of the exhibition ‘Habiter Plus Habiter Mieux‘ at Pavillon de l’Arsenal, Paris, FR. Apr 5 – Sep 2, daily, free entry. Opening Apr 4 at 18:15.

OFFICE is currently working on the mixed-use project ‘Mercator’ for developer Triple Living. The project will feature a family of three residential buildings of increasing size on a site across the street from the deSingel Arts Campus in Antwerp. It will contain about 130 apartments, commercial spaces and offices, and provide a public entrance to the ‘Domein Herthoge’ park behind. The project’s step-down profile was developed to safeguard the neighbors’ sunlight. In collaboration with Bureau Bas Smets.

OFFICE has won the competition for a durable and large-scale industrial complex in Blanquefort near Bordeaux (FR), organised by La FAB (La Fabrique de Bordeaux Métropole). The 20,000 m² project, titled ‘Les Halles Généreuses’, features a set of multipurpose, flexible halls for young companies, joined in a elongated elliptical floor plan which is crossed by bioclimatic, transversal axes. The building will be the first stage of a sustainable industrial site ‘Ecoparc’. OFFICE developed the architectural project for and together with GA Smart Building.

Dar Al Jinaa (OFFICE 126: Centres for Traditional Music) was awarded with the Belgian Building Award in the ‘International’ category. The jury appreciated the way the building is integrated in the complex urban structure of the Bahrein old town, the careful balance between intimacy and openness, daylight and cover, protection and wonder.

February 24th saw the opening of the exhibition ‘Image and Architecture’ by Bas Princen at Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. The exhibition, with a scenography designed by OFFICE, shows the photographer’s recent work, which examines the ambiguous relationship between photography, image and reproduction. It questions the status of the ‘original’, while showing unique features and details of architecture from across the centuries, and the role that images have always played in it.

Exhibition: Bas Princen. Image and Architecture. Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, CH. 24.02.2018 – 29.07.2018, daily 10 am – 6 pm.

Several OFFICE projects are featured as part of the ‘Inscriptions: Architecture before Speech‘ exhibition at the Druker Design Gallery of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (US). Through a selection of models and printed materials of various practices, the show investigates the hypotheses that “the landscape of contemporary practice is filled with work whose motivating interests are anterior to meaning and averse to thematization; they are, in a way, pre-speech”. From Jan 22nd until March 11th 2018.

Construction has started on OFFICE 164: Office Building in Kortrijk, BE. The project is the conversion of a worn out building to a contemporary and durable office, by the introduction of an independent building around the stripped existing skeleton. This added layer serves both as an architectural element and a technical tool, which contains and controls the distribution of technical installations and natural light, and gives the building a new and sustainable urban presence.

Dar Al Riffa, the second of the two Centres for Traditional Music which OFFICE designed and built in Bahrain, has festively opened. The building, smaller brother of the previously opened Dar Al Jinaa, features spaces for traditional music performance on the ground level, as well as a temporary residences for musicians on the top floors. The steel mesh ‘veil’ that covers the building and functions as a solar protection can be lifted during public performances. Photo by Nenad Duric.

‘La Librairie Walther König & Cahiers D’art’ at Palais de Tokyo will be inaugurated Friday Sept. 8th, between 6 and 8 pm. The bookshop, designed by OFFICE for publishers Walther König and Cahiers d’Art, has been open since last April but will now be officially inaugurated. The event, which is open for all, will be marked by a small reception, and a book signing of ‘Volumes 1, 2 & 3’ by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. More information here.

We’re proud to announce that our proposal was chosen as the laureate of Open Oproep 3204 competition for the new Library of Sint Martens Latem (BE). In OFFICE’s design the library is conceived as a circular perimeter of bookcases, clad in brick, supporting a gabled roof. A central ‘reading garden’, open for the community, forms the heart of the project. For more information and a closer look at the project, visit the Open Oproep website.

Several OFFICE projects will be open for visitors on Sunday September 10th, offering a unique insight in the design and working of these buildings. Both OFFICE 152: Incubator in Waregem, and OFFICE 78: University Library in Ghent open their doors on the occasion of the Festival of Architecture, organised by the VAi. Furthermore, OFFICE 90: Agriculture School, the new building for the Wijnpers School in Leuven (BE), will be visitable during this year’s ‘Heritage Day’. Architectural tours for all projects will be given. For more information and inscriptions, visit the festivals’ websites via the links above.

Ground works have started on OFFICE 174: Caserne De Reuilly, a housing project by OFFICE in collaboration with NP2F in Paris (FR). The project is part of a large scale urban project with a total of 600 housing units, which will transform the former closed military site to a complex and vibrant piece of city, where every building has its own characteristics while sharing a common language. In OFFICE/NP2F’s project, new adjacent volumes to an existing wing of the Caserne de Reuilly, creating a total of 120 housing in a mix of old and new.

OFFICE is participating in this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial entitled ‘Make New History’, curated by the Los Angeles office Johnston Marklee. In collaboration with the artists Peter Wächtler and Michael Van den Abeele, OFFICE created a new proposal for the seminal Chicago Tribune Tower competition of 1922. The project is on display within the exhibition ‘Vertical City’ at the Chicago Cultural Center. The publication series ‘Architecture without content’ will be also on display at the Biennale in ‘Rooms for Books’ by Mollet Geiser.

Chicago Architecture Biennial, Sept 16, 2017 – Jan 7, 2018. Press and professional previews on 14 and 15 Sept ’17. Image © Michael Van den Abeele / Peter Wächtler.

We’re proud to announce that OFFICE has been shortlisted for the architectural competition for the Citroën Cultural Centre in Brussels, as one of seven teams selected from the 92 applications received. The € 125m project aims to convert the impressive Citroën Yser garage next to the Canal in the centre of Brussels to a museum (in collaboration with Centre Pompidou in Paris), an architectural centre and a mix of public cultural, educational and recreational functions. For this competition, OFFICE teamed up with Christ & Gantenbein architects, Richard Venlet, Muller Van Severen and Bureau Bas Smets, as well as an international team of advisors: Bollinger + Grohmann (structure), Ove Arup & partners (techniques/acoustics), Jan de Moffarts (heritage) and Abesco (safety, epb). More information here.

We’re proud to announce the publication of ‘OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen — Volumes 1, 2 & 3‘ by Walther König. The set of three books, designed by Joris Kritis in collaboration with OFFICE and Bas Princen, are the first parts of our ongoing oeuvre catalogue. They show in a systematic, chronological way the projects from OFFICE 2 to OFFICE 201, spanning a period of 15 years. This overview is complemented by photographs of Bas Princen, Stefano Graziani and Dirk Braeckman, and essays by Giovanna Borasi, Christophe Van Gerrewey and Ellis Woodman, amongst others. Volume 2 was released in a limited number last year, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Everything Architecture in BOZAR. Now, exactly one year later, we complete the circle by presenting the full set at the finissage of this same exhibition at the Architectural Association, to which the books function as the de facto catalogue. The book launch will be marked by a small event and drinks reception on Thursday 23/5 at 6:30 pm at the AA bookshop, London.

‘OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen — Volumes 1, 2 & 3’. Hardcover, 21 x 29,7 cm. 432 p., 537 illustrations. ISBN 978-3-86335-924-9. Available for order from June 9th and in bookstores from June 23rd.

The exhibition ‘Besides, History: Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen’ is currently on display at CCA, Montreal (CA). In this exhibition, curated by Giovanna Borasi, the architects investigate what role history can play in contemporary architecture practice. They reread, redraw, translate and appropriate from the past and from each other in order to construct relationships and meaning out of a constellation of references. History becomes something that can be used rather than just studied.

Exhibition: Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen: ‘Besides, History:Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen‘, From May 9 until October 8, 2017, at CCA, Montreal, CA. Opening May 9th at 18:00. Open Wednesdays until Sundays, 11am-6pm. Photo by Bas Princen.

After previously being on display at BOZAR, Brussels, and arc en rêve, Bordeaux, OFFICE’s solo exhibition ‘Everything Architecture’ has traveled to the AA Gallery in London, UK. For this third incarnation, the materials are rearranged to form a new narrative that complements AA’s gallery space. The exhibition will be on display from April 29th until May 27th, access is free of charge. The ‘private view’ opening on April 28th will be accompanied by a lecture by Geers and Van Severen, at 18:30 in AA’s Lecture Hall, which will be open to the public (with limited number of places). 

Exhibition: ‘Everything Architecture’, Apr 28 – May 27.
AA Gallery, London, UK. Open daily except Sundays, free admission.

We’re pleased to announce that after two years of construction, the SOLO House is completed! Solo OFFICE is the second realized ‘Solo House’, part of a project of 12 exceptional homes curated by Christian Bourdais in the mountainous region of Matarraña, two hours south of Barcelona. The house consists of a simple circular roof which frames the top of a plateau and overlooks the surrounding forests and dramatic landscape – underlining the qualities of both the plateau and its edge. Four straight rows of eight columns cut chords out of the circular base shape and define living areas with variable levels of protection. Large sliding walls on the outer edge of the circle allow the living areas to open fully, and provide a seamless transition between the dweller and the surrounding nature.

OFFICE, in collaboration with NFA and BBS, is currently working on the building permit dossier for the ‘Havenlaan 12’ site at the Brussels Canal area for developer Triple Living. The project was the winning entry of a competition organised by the Brussels Bouwmeester and the Municipality of Molenbeek, who chose the project out of preliminary list of 30 teams and 3 final proposals. The site, which sits next to Tour&Taxis, is currently occupied by an office building. This will be replaced by a family of three small towers and a linear housing block, organised around a central semi-public garden. The volumes, which share a similar character and finishing in coloured concrete paneling, will together form a permeable, urban ensemble with a strong identity, which can be seen as a blueprint for future developments. The 28 000 m² of planned floor surface will contain a mix of housing, assisted living, a hotel and various commercial spaces, complemented with private and public outdoor spaces.

OFFICE, in collaboration with Bureau Bas Smets, is proud to announce the opening of the exhibition ‘The Pearling Trail’ at the Bahrain National Museum, which will feature their urban interventions on the Pearl Path, Pedestrian Bridge and at the recently completed ‘Dar’ centre for traditional music (OFFICE 126).

“Four years after the inscription of the “Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy” site on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the exhibition will showcase the built vision for the site through architectural models, images, studies and mock-ups of the different components of the project. From the conservation aspects to the new architectural interventions, the exhibition will give an in-depth overview of this unique project that aims to spearhead the rehabilitation of the Old City of Muharraq.”

Exhibition: ‘The Pearling Path‘, at Bahrain National Museum, 18 April – 4 August 2017, daily 8:00am – 8:00pm, free admission.

The new bookshop of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, which was designed by OFFICE for Walther König & Cahiers d’Arts, has opened! The 450 m² shop is conceived as a rectangular perimeter of book shelves entirely constructed out of yellow tinted MDF. One side of the perimeter curves outwards and extends into the Palais’ main hall, functioning as the shop entrance and etalage, and inviting visitors inside. ‘La Librairie du Palais‘ is open daily from noon until midnight. Photo by Bas Princen.

OFFICE, in collaboration with Bollinger+Grohmann engineers, has won the competition for a pedestrian bridge between the Federal House of Representatives and the new Forum building on the other site of the Leuvensestraat, in the centre of Brussels. The bridge, which was explicitly designed as a spatial element rather then a technical solution, is shaped as a ring, suspended between the facades of the two buildings. The result is a generous ‘walkabout’ around a central void, useable as an meeting and dwelling space, and a possible escape from the hectic activities in the two buildings it connects. The project is currently under development, and expected to go in construction in spring 2018.

The exhibition ‘THE BOOKS OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CITY’, curated by Kersten Geers, Victoria Easton and Guido Tesio, is now on display in the Archizoom exhibition space at EPFL. The show, which which previously on display in the Instituto Svizzero in Milan, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Aldo Rossi’s classic book ‘L’architettura della città’, by returning to its sources—it is a survey of all books Rossi explicitly quoted within its pages.

Exhibition: “The Books of the Architecture of the City‘, Archizoom gallery at ENAC faculty, EPFL, Lausanne, CH. February 21th until March 12th 2017, free admission.

OFFICE is participating in the exhibition ‘Spaces without drama or surface is an illusion, but so is depth‘, currently on display at the Graham Foundation in Chicago, IL, US. The show, curated by Wonne Ickx and Ruth Estévez, examines the recent proliferation of collage in architectural representation in relationship to scenography and theatrical set design. OFFICE’s intervention consists of the introduction of a printed ‘trompe-l’oeil’ curtain in one of the exhibition spaces, touching on the bounderies between architecture, installation and decoration.

Exhibition: ‘Spaces without drama or surface is an illusion, but so is depth‘, Graham Foundation, Chicago, IL, US. From Feb 16th until July 1st 2017.

OFFICE’s ‘Corner Chair’ was presented today at the MANIERA gallery, as part of the ‘Corners’ exhibition, which includes works by OFFICE, Trix + Robert Haussman, and Bas Princen. The Chair exists in three variants, with the arm- and backrest in either burl wood, casted resin, or white carrara marble.

Exhibition: ‘Corners’, MANIERA, Brussels, BE. Jan 25th until March 25th 2017.

OFFICE is proud to be a double laureate of the Steel Building Award 2016. Both OFFICE 78: Library and OFFICE 117: Drying Hall were selected by the jury led by Willem Jan Neutelings as best of their categories, respectively ‘steel elements’ and ‘industry’. The jury appreciated the simplicity of the projects, demonstrating a refined use of (standardised) steel elements as both the structure and finish. The prize is awarded on a yearly basis by Infosteel. See all laureates here.

OFFICE’s exposition ‘Everything Architecture’ is currently on display in the ‘Grande Galerie’ at centre d’architecture arc en rêve in Bordeaux, from November 3rd until March 26th, 2017. The show features the same content as the original Bozar exhibition, but reorganised along a new narrative, based on the spaces of arc en rêve. The exhibition will open on November 3rd with a lecture by OFFICE.

We are proud to announce that OFFICE,, in collaboration with Nicolas Firket Architects and Bureau Bas Smets, has won the competition for the redevelopment of the ‘Havenlaan 12’ site at the Brussels Canal area, by developer Triple Living.

The site, which sits next to Tour&Taxis, and facing the future ‘Beco park’ along the canal, is currently occupied by an office building, which will be replaced by a family of three small towers and a lineair housing block, organised around a central semi-public garden. The volumes, who share a similar character and finishing in coloured concrete paneling, will together form a permeable, urban ensemble with a strong identity, which can be seen as a blueprint for future developments. The existing underground parking will be used as the foundation for the new development. The 28 000 m² of planned floor surface will contain a mix of housing, assisted living, a hotel and various commercial spaces. The various types of housing (row houses, apartments and studios) will be complemented with private outside spaces, from gardens at the ground level until terraces, loggia’s and winter garden in the upper levels.

The competition was organised by Brussels Bouwmeester, who together with the Molenbeek commune, the Brussels regional authorities and the client, chose the project out of an original longlist of 30 teams, and 3 final proposals.

OFFICE is participating in the exhibition ‘EUTopia: The Possibility of an Island’ in Museum M, Leuven. The exhibition, curated by plusofficearchitects and Joeri De Bruyn, celebrates the 500th anniversary of Thomas Moore’s classic Utopia, investigating its relevance today through installations by 4 Belgian practices. For this occasion, OFFICE created a new perspective on its 2007 project ‘Cité de Refuge’, in the form of a monumental Trompe-l’œil. The exhibition will be inaugurated by a visit and debate on Thursday Oct 20th. Admission to this event is free, but advance registration is required.

Exhibition: EUtopia: the Possibility of an Island
Oct 20th 2016 until Jan 17th 2017, Museum M, Leuven.

Friday October 14th will see the festive opening of the 25th silver jubileum edition of the Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk XPO. This year’s edition, themed ‘Silver Lining — INTERIORS’, was curated by OFFICE in collaboration with graphic designer Joris Kritis and artist Richard Venlet. Central to INTERIORS is the idea that furniture and objects are not isolated items; they are always part of the organised space. Various international guests have been invited to create these INTERIORS, which are spread throughout the exhibition halls of Kortrijk XPO.

One of these is the ‘SOLO Interior’, designed by OFFICE in collaboration with artists Richard Venlet and Pieter Vermeersch and furniture designers Muller Van Severen, which features an abstracted excerpt of OFFICE’s SOLO house, populated by custom-designed objects and furniture. Furthermore, OFFICE invited Valerie Traan (BE), Etage Projects (DK), Carwan Gallery (LB) and MANIERA to organise sub-exhibitions. In MANIERA’s exhibition space, OFFICE’s new Corner Chair will be presented.

Biennale Interieur 2016, 25th Silver Edition, in Xpo Kortrijk (BE). Open to the Public from 15/10/2016 until 23/10. Full Programme.

‘’t Werkpand Waregem’, a small-scale industrial incubator building for start-up companies in Waregem has been completed. The building, commissioned by POM West-Vlaanderen, is the result of a winning competition entry in 2013, and will provide office and production space for up to 4 young companies in various lines of work. The distorted geometry of the long, aluminium-clad volume ensures plenty of north light for the ateliers, and contains a hidden communal meeting room.

The Form of Form, curated by Diogo Seixas Lopes, is one of the three main exhibitions of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, which opened last week. For this, Johnston Marklee, Nuno Brandão Costa and OFFICE created a gigantic temporary architecture, consisting of various linked spaces taken from projects of each of the three firms, which function as a ‘conversation’ in which the exhibition’s narrative is developed. The spaces house content selected from the extensive database of the Socks platform, an archive of architectural form compiled by Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli, as ‘a non-linear journey through distant territories of human imagination’.

Exhibition: The Form of Form, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, 5 Oct – 11 Dec 2016

The exhibition ‘THE BOOKS OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CITY’ is now on display in the Instituto Svizzero in Milan, IT. The show, curated by Kersten Geers, Victoria Easton and Guido Tesio, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Aldo Rossi’s classic book ‘L’architettura della città’, by returning to its sources—it is a survey of all books Rossi explicitly quoted within its pages.

Instituto Svizzero, Milan. Sep 15th — Oct. 22 2016, free admission.

OFFICE’s studios ‘The Commons’ and ‘Communes (another portrait of America)’ has started in parallel at EPFL (CH) and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (US) respectively. The studios are new incarnations of ‘Architecture Without Content’, a theme which OFFICE has explored in a series of studios undertaken at different schools and universities since 2012.

We are very proud to present El Croquis N.185 on OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen! The issue titled ‘Primary Actions’ features 32 projects spanning the period from 2003 until 2016, as well as an essay by Juan Antonio Cortes and an interview with Enrique Walker. The issue is available in print and digital edition from the El Croquis website, and will be distributed in stores world wide shortly.

Publication: El Croquis N. 185: OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen – 2003-2016 – ‘Primary actions’
Semi-hard cover, 262 pages, 9.5 x 13.5 in – 67 oz
ISBN: 978-84-88386-90-8

Dar Jinaa, one of two centres of traditional music OFFICE designed and built in the old city of Bahrain, has been completed and festively opened. The project, which consists of a ‘Majlis’ (‘collective room’) added to an existing community centre called a ‘dar’ (‘house’), will give a public face to the ancient community of pearl fishers, who will use the building for music performances. The simple structure of concrete columns and floor plates is ‘veiled’ by a fine steel mesh, which functions as a solar protection, and can be lifted to allow by-passers a look inside when the building is in use.

You are cordially invited to the finissage of our exhibition ‘Everything Architecture’, Sunday 29th of May at 16h in the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels. A small event will be held to mark the end of this exhibition, an important milestone in OFFICE’s history. For the occasion, an extra 50 copies of ‘OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen: Volume 2’ will be for sale. There will also be a small presentation of two new publications (see below). The exhibition will be open for visits until 18h.

OFFICE is proud to be a part of the ‘Bravoure’ exhibition which has opened on May 26th at the Belgian Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2016 in Venice. The exhibition, curated by architecten de vylder vinck taillieu, doorzon interieurarchitecten and architect-photographer Filip Dujardin, focuses on the idea of ‘craftmanship’ in architecture. OFFICE 39: Villa Buggenhout is featured in this light. The Belgian pavilion will also be actively used for events during the biennale. Friday 27th, between 15h and 17h, a conversation is planned with authors and contributors of recent books and magazines coming out of Flanders and Brussels, among which also our own monograph ‘OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen: Volume 2’. Kersten Geers will be present to take part.

Exhibition: ‘Bravoure‘, Belgian Pavilion, Giardini, Venice. 28.05.2016, 10:00 until 27.11.2016, 18:00

Conversation: Books on Architecture from Flanders and Brussels. Friday, 27 May 2016, 15.00 – 17.00 hrs

We are proud to announce two new publications edited by The Laboratory of Architecture as Form (FORM), Kersten Geers’ studio at the EPFL in Lausanne. ‘The Difficult Whole: A Reference Book on the Work of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’, will be published by Park Books, and available in architecture book stores soon. ‘Metropolitan Architecture’ is the seventeenth part of the ‘Architecture Without Content’-series. The book and others of the series are available for order via the FORM online shop. Both publications have been designed by graphic designer Joris Kritis, and will be presented on the finissage of ‘Everything Architecture’ (see above).

The exhibition ‘Drawings by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen’ is currently on display at the ETH Zürich.

“Drawings and collages play a central role in the work of architects Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. In a unique digital visual language dominated by pastel colors, they produce an oeuvre that goes beyond the conventional uses of the architectural drawing for representation and planning purposes. The drawings and collages form an independent body of work presented and treated for the first time in a solo show at a major institution in this exhibition. Presented in contrast to the John Hejduk’s drawings, they show a contemporary approach to the medium of architectural drawing.”

Location: ‘Drawings by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen‘, gta exhibition, HIL building, campus Hönggerbergh, ETH Zürich.

Date: Thursday, April 21, 2016 to Friday, May 20, 2016 Mon-Fri 10-18, closed on weekends and holidays