"Written as a kind of anti-guidebook, Something Completely Different by Christophe Van Gerrewey, appropriates certain clichés about Belgium (Baudelaire famously called Belgian monuments “counterfeits of France”), eschews the pragmatism of most guidebooks in favour of meditative, essayistic prose, and finally, cunningly, reveals that all along the subject has not been Belgium at all, but rather the nature of architecture." Published by MIT Press.

Cover photo OFFICE 50 After the Party by Bas Princen.

The latest edition of El Croquis magazine dedicated to the work of OFFICE has just been published. It presents a selection of twenty-five projects made over the period of seven years since the previous OFFICE monograph, including several projects that have not been published before. The issue also features an essay by Christophe Van Gerrewey and an interview Giovanna Borasi conducted with Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. You can find more info and order your copy here. 

LECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Kersten Geers and David Van Severen will present the latest publication on OFFICE work at the International Architectural Education Platform SEKISUI HOUSE - KUMA LAB. The lecture will take place on Friday July 19th at 6.30PM at Haseko-Kuma Hall. You can find more info on the event here.

EVERYTHING XVI-XX
A MODERNIST ENDING

This book chronicles the fourth academic year of the studio led by Kersten Geers at the Academy of Architecture USI in Mendrisio. It was produced as a counterpart to Experiments in Thickness, a book which focused on the work of Giancarlo de Carlo in Urbino. As a means of grappling with that elephant in the room—the modern project—and its perceived failure of good intentions, all the projects gathered here are an update of sorts. Abstract overarching narratives were updated as premises for projects in Milan, De Carlo’s campus in Urbino was updated to accommodate current student population, and unrealised projects in Milan were revived to create a radically contemporary urbanity. But this was not an exercise in nostalgia and retrieval of the lost cause, as much as seeking an opportunity in a modernist ending.

CHURCH TOWER AT THE PORT OF ANTWERP
BY BAS PRINCEN

Bas Princen is the laureate of the artist competition organised by the Port of Antwerp for the gothic church tower of Wilmarsdonk, the only remnant of the polder villages that have been erased in the 1960s for the expansion of the harbour, today completely surrounded by the shipping containers. Bas Princen's design — executed in collaboration with OFFICE – is a small garden around the tower, sunken to the original ground floor level, and enclosed by a railing structure that carries fourteen large photographs printed on metal sheets that depict 1:1 details of the tower. The official opening will take place on May 27th and this will be a rare occasion to see the tower and the installation, which will remain inaccessible. 

OFFICE 398: EXPO PARK PARK PARK
COMPETITION PROPOSAL

OFFICE and Inside/Outside’s competition proposal for a multifunctional exhibition center on the outskirts of Tirana aims to create first and foremost a park: a structuring ecosystem for the city’s future development. The design reduces to minimum the footprint of the multifunctional exhibition center by lifting the light structures from the ground and creating an uninterrupted continuation of public space. The architecture is organized into three volumes where simple geometric typologies and double skin envelopes provide maximum plan adaptability and programmatic flexibility. Its future-proof character, the capacity to stand ready to meet yet unformulated needs, contributes to the sustainability of the Expo Park.

A BIG HOUSE
STUDIO AT TOKYO UNIVERSITY

Kersten Geers and David Van Severen are teaching an International Design Studio this semester at Sekisui House — Kuma Lab, a program for international architectural education, founded at the University of Tokyo. Titled “A Big House”, the studio will explore new concepts for urban housing typologies within the extreme density of Tokyo. Pushing against typical residential scale, students will design timber “big houses” that test the limits of domesticity through repetition, exaggerated shared spaces, or other means of achieving an intentionally amplified presence. The aim is to inject new models of urban living into Tokyo’s urban fabric. You can find more info about the program here.

OFFICE 359: MEGAFACTORY
GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Belgian small satellite manufacturer Aerospacelab took place on May 16th in Charleroi. The project for a new factory comprises two volumes: a vacated modernist building repurposed as a parking facility and, connected to it by a pedestrian bridge, a 130m-long elongated elliptical volume. The latter works like a box in a box: a central rectangular ‘clean room’ for production and assembly is enclosed by peripheral smaller spaces for ateliers and laboratories. Above, there is a field of offices pierced by a grid of circular patios. With 7’000 square meters of production area and 4’000 square meters of clean room, this will be the third largest satellite factory in the world. The building is scheduled to be completed in June 2026.

OFFICE 285: TWIN TOWERS, GHENT
BUILDING PERMIT GRANTED

The building permit has been approved for the housing complex located next to the main railway station in Ghent. The project consists of two identical towers with a public square in between, and is part of a larger redevelopment of the area enclosed by the railway and the Ringvaart canal. The project had a predefined base: the foundations, as well as the underground parking garage had already been built. The two towers thus adapted to the existing structural grid, and were conceived as shelves of cast-in-situ concrete carrying isolated wooden boxes of housing units. The plans range to accommodate four, six or eight apartments per floor, each with a small winter garden. The central core has a generous bicycle storage, so the residents can bring their bicycles to their apartment floor, rather than leave them downstairs. Additionally, the program includes two commercial spaces on the ground floor, and a bar and a restaurant on the public plaza. 

OFFICE 283: HOUSING COMPLEX, ANTWERP
CONSTRUCTION STARTED

Part of an urban strategy to redevelop the old “Slaughterhouse district" in Antwerp into a vibrant neighbourhood with a university campus and collective housing, the project consists of two corner buildings on the first residential block of the masterplan. Striving for architectural coherence, OFFICE worked closely with the designers of the adjacent buildings —Robbrecht & Daem and De Smet— to achieve six volumes with distinct identities, yet harmonious in materiality. Together, the different buildings are creating a roof-scape with alternated flat and pitched roofs, visually resembling the heterogeneous industrial past of the area. Construction works started in mid-2023 and the buildings are expected to be finished in the beginning of 2026. Another OFFICE project within the same masterplan— the nearby former slaughterhouse transformed into a new University campus of the AP Hogeschool is almost completed and will open its doors in the academic year 2024-2025.

OFFICE 324: MEDIA HOUSE VRT
CONSTRUCTION SITE VISIT

Construction works for Media House VRT (Flemish Radio and Television) proceed at a fast pace. TV studios are currently being built with the key public and logistic spaces around them. Ground floor level construction has started and the multi-faceted perimeter of the building that addresses the city and the forest, shaping four outdoor spaces, is now visible on site. The competition was won by OFFICE in a design-and-build process with consortium VRT Morgen (OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Jaspers-Eyers Architects, Bureau Bas Smets, Willemen, Jan De Nul, EEG, Tractebel, CES, iDeal Acoustics) in June 2021, and is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2025. A guided tour of VRT construction site will be organised on May 26th, on the occasion of the “Open Wervendag”. You can subscribe via this link.

OFFICE 374: KNOLL
OPENING

The Knoll Pavilion at the Salone del Mobile in Milan is opening next Tuesday, April 16. The pavilion, designed by OFFICE with repurposed and recycled materials, envisions residential life through a sequence of intimate spaces, elegant flower gardens, and artworks, overlaying architecture, furniture, materials and color to shape a total experience of space.

LECTURE AT PRADA FRAMES

Kersten Geers and David Van Severen will speak at Prada Frames, the annual multidisciplinary symposium held in parallel with Milan’s Salone del Mobile. The multi-day program delves into the complex relationship between the natural environment and design. Entitled 'Being Home', this year’s event looks at the living environment as a framework to address contemporary challenges. The symposium is curated by the design and research studio Formafantasma. Admission to Prada Frames is complimentary, based on availability, upon registration at prada.com from April 8.

LECTURE AT aut, INNSBRUCK

Kersten Geers will present recent OFFICE work at the Tyrolean architecture centre in Innsbruck, Austria. The lecture will take place at aut, on the 21st March at 8 pm. For more info on the event, please visit the website of aut.

OFFICE 316: 25 COLUMNS
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Construction is almost completed for OFFICE 316 25 Columns, a summer house in Plintsberg, Sweden, built completely out of cross-laminated timber and aluminum elements. Situated on a sloped landscape, twenty-five round columns raise the villa overlooking a forest and a lake. The house is approached from the road above, making the roof a prominent fifth façade. The roof is cladded in aluminum sheets and softly reflects the surroundings, allowing the house to dissolve into the landscape while protecting it from the harsh weather.

LECTURE AT Éav&t, PARIS

Kersten Geers will give lecture at the École d'architecture de la ville et des territoires Paris-Est. Coordinated by Anna Rosellini, the conference cycle aims “to discuss the concept and role of the room within the habitat following social and environmental phenomena, in the European and Western context as well as in other global traditions. The conferences also aim to extend reflections to the collective spaces of the building, the city or the territory, which are increasingly important for the genesis of a feeling of community.” The lecture will take place on March 19th, at 1 pm, followed by a discussion with Éric Lapierre. You can find more info here.