Teacher(s)
Language
French
Main themes
The studio offers a new cumulative experience of the architectural design process.
Within the context of a world in ecological and social transition, the studio explores human relationships with water and ecosystems at architectural, urban, and territorial scales. The project will include analytical dimensions and the identification of potentials and qualities. New development proposals will be formulated in terms of morphologies, typologies and landscape extents and boundaries. The topic of water and ecosystems will not be handled in isolation, but will be integrated into a broader reflection incorporating themes such as housing, work, institutions, mobility, public and collective life. Specific attention will be attributed to the temporal development of the project (with regards to ordering and phasing of building interventions). The scales addressed will range from the territorial to the architectural. The documents produced will include both hand and computer-aided drawings, as well as written reports synthesizing the hypotheses, issues, methods, and objectives of the proposed investigations.
Within the context of a world in ecological and social transition, the studio explores human relationships with water and ecosystems at architectural, urban, and territorial scales. The project will include analytical dimensions and the identification of potentials and qualities. New development proposals will be formulated in terms of morphologies, typologies and landscape extents and boundaries. The topic of water and ecosystems will not be handled in isolation, but will be integrated into a broader reflection incorporating themes such as housing, work, institutions, mobility, public and collective life. Specific attention will be attributed to the temporal development of the project (with regards to ordering and phasing of building interventions). The scales addressed will range from the territorial to the architectural. The documents produced will include both hand and computer-aided drawings, as well as written reports synthesizing the hypotheses, issues, methods, and objectives of the proposed investigations.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to : | |
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Content
During this studio, students will explore the opportunities and challenges involved in transforming the streets of Brussels’ inner ring in order to create more space for water, ecosystems, and urban uses that provide alternatives to the dominance of the private car.
In the first phase, students will be divided into sub-groups, each addressing this challenge through a specific scale of intervention, project method, and network of partners:
In the first phase, students will be divided into sub-groups, each addressing this challenge through a specific scale of intervention, project method, and network of partners:
- Micro scale: co-design and implement a prototype rainwater harvesting and infiltration system in partnership with a school, its pupils, parents, and neighbouring residents, with support from the regional territorial development administration’s school infrastructure service.
- Meso scale: design and test a serious game dedicated to the collective planning of a neighbourhood-wide network of infiltration, storage, and runoff attenuation measures, in partnership with a hydrological community, a non-profit organisation active in this field, and the regional environmental administration.
- Macro scale: design and experiment with a participatory countermapping process aimed at identifying opportunities for implementing the sponge city concept across Brussels, in collaboration with institutional water management actors, environmental organisations, and residents’ associations.
Teaching methods
Methodological lectures, collection and analysis of cartographic data and reference materials, field visits, participatory workshops with local stakeholders, action research, collaborative studio work, oral presentations supported by visual material, and collective discussions.
Evaluation methods
Assessment will be conducted by a jury composed of the studio instructors and invited experts, based on two group deliverables: a co-design project (Phase 1) and an integrated strategy for territorial transformation (Phase 2).
Faculty or entity
