Studio ALL or NOTHING | Exploring Adaptive Urban Futures
Keywords: #adaptive reuse, #urban ecology, #hybrid programs, #building simply, #intelligent ruïn, #structure/skin, #structure/skin, #building without content
Tutor(s):
Jan Van Gassen, Quirijn Thijs, Sandy De Bruycker, (Christian Nolf: Urban Cultures)
Engagement:
Craftsmanship in collaboration with urban cultures
Location:
Gent
Language/Taal:
English + Dutch
Semester:
Semester 2, Spring 2026
Description/Inhoud:
Two studios craftsmanship and one studio urban cultures join forces. Bringing together a diverse teaching team with broad and diverse expertise, the joint studio shares a common goal: to transform an urban site into a sustainable “urban village” that can adapt to an open‐ended future.
This year, the studio focuses on the Vynckier site, a 7-hectare post-industrial area in northern Ghent. Formerly a production facility for heating and ventilation components, Vynckier now lies at the heart of ongoing regeneration efforts around the Verbindingskanaal.
ALL or NOTHING refers to the changes, caused by the climate crisis and the urgency to design sustainably. But it also refers to the programmatic infill of the designs.
The joint studio is based on “design through research”: the analysis and evaluation of the site’s existing conditions and challenges, combined with research on exemplary architectural adaptation practices will inform ambitous, concrete, and robust proposals across different scales for the site’s future development.
By selecting a large urban site as the context for the studio, we aim to test and develop architectural solutions that respond to a dynamic urban landscape in transformation. We view the evolving site as a canvas for designing architecture and public/collective spaces without a predefined program. Projects are expected to be robust, proposing regenerative interventions where both buildings and open spaces can (continue to) evolve into new “intelligent ruins.” Not as seperate buildings on its own, but as a sustainable urban neighbourhood.
In the first phase each group will develop an architectural prototype of an adaptive building or (infra)structure linked to its chosen theme.
In the second individual phase each student will adapt the group prototype to a non-conventional program, or a hybrid combination of programs, assigned at random. This phase explores how adaptive structures can accommodate unforeseen and changing programmatic demands.
Line of inquiry/Onderzoekslijn:
Material Reality / For Real / Practice as Study
Topic, Thematic Focus/Thema:
structure, space/adapt, circularity, water, energy,
mobility, biodiversity, soil remediation, microclimate, food…
Key Questions or Provocation/ Centrale vragen en provocaties:
How to design a building that can evolve architecturally?
What are the preconditions for designing a sustainablebuilding/urban district?
What are the preconditions for designing a qualitative and adaptable building without a specific program?
What are the implications in terms of structure, technical installations and spatiality?
Methodologies or Formats / Methodologie:
case study’s, topical research, iterative modeling, design through research, documentation of process and outcome
Design / Expected Outcome(s) / Ontwerp / Verwachte Resultaten:
sustainable urban neighbourhood
Deliverables / In te dienen documenten:
Collective context model
Research booklet
Physical and/or hybrid models
Drawings (plans, sections, axonometric views, collages)
Final poster and booklet documenting the design process