Care [infra]structures

Reflecting Urban Cultures

Semester 3, Brussels, English spoken.

Master of Architecture engagement Urban Cultures, Campus Sint Lucas Brussels

Academic year 2026 2027

Tutor: Irene Feria Prados

Picture Left: Gross Domestic Product, Edit Collective

Care [infra]structures

Can we agree that care infrastructures are life-affirming infrastructures? That they are responses to a demand to keep and sustain life and to not fall under some abysmal necropolitical chokehold? A promiscuous infrastructure takes on this life-affirming premise that multiplies and expands to a radical interdependence that is already here, though neither acknowledged nor considered relevant by the business as usual.

-“A Non-Intro Introduction” on Promiscuous Infrastructures: Practicing Care

Feminist theorists, activists and architects have long argued that the work required to sustain everyday life remains systematically invisibilised, and studied how architecture contributes to this process. Known as reproductive labour, it’s often gendered, racialised or performed by those who are the most socio-economically disadvantaged. The spaces in which this labour is performed (kitchens, laundromats, bedrooms, park benches, playgrounds, bathrooms – the list is endless) become [infra]structures: technologies that support our life yet remain largely hidden beneath the visible structures of paid work.

Learning from queer, feminist theories and activist urban practices, this studio explores how architecture actively shapes the organisation, distribution and visibility of caring processes. Departing from a critique of the hegemony of the nuclear household and its spatial segregation of productive and reproductive labour, we will anchor the semester in alternative forms of kinship, collective domesticities and community support that continue to emerge in Brussels. Through input on inclusive architecture, collective readings, situated methodologies and research by design, you will gain tools to develop spatial proposals that recognise caring urban relationships and favour more inclusive ways of living together.

TIMELINE

01_DECONSTRUCTING [THE HOUSE]
*Collective work, W1-3, output: material-discursive collage

We will start by deconstructing the idea of the house as a ‘neutral’ space, understanding how it structures a separation between productive and reproductive work, while reproducing patriarchal spatial arrangements. To do so, we will literally take the house apart in different spatial settings and studying them in their discursive-material dimensions with the help of some allies:

-Kitchen ~ with Angela Davis
-Veranda ~ with Johan Lagae
-Bedroom ~ with Henry Urbach
-Staircase ~ with Beatriz Colomina
-Living room ~ with Katarinna Bonnevier

Picture: Still Born, Anderlecht. Project by alumni Marie Scheidmann

02_PRECEDING [CARE]
*Collective work, W3-5, output: relational fragment of case-study

‘Care’ is increasingly used in architectural discourse, but what does it actually mean? To understand this, we will study past and present alternative caring infrastructures. From squats in Berlin to collective canteens in Mexico City through queer firehouses in New York, these references reveal how care is already structured in our societies, often bottom-up and from the failure of institutions.

*EXCURSION IN BXL, W3: We’ll have an intense day speaking to activist communities, visiting our site, critical mapping workshop and much more !

03_SITUATING [INFRASTRUCTURES]
*Collective work, W5-7, output: brief graphic novel

At this point, it’s your turn to situate yourself and your intervention. How can you, as an architect, contribute to caring infrastructures? In conversation with kinships (extended families, activist collectives, queer houses, etc) active in Brussels, you will translate situated needs into an architectural programme – understanding how social practices can benefit from new architectural arrangements. In this process, we will work with graphical storytelling as a means to situate ourselves, questioning the design and communication tools that we conventionally use as architects.

Picture: Lavoir du Jubilée. Project by alumni Iman Demol

04_RECONSTRUCTING [..] W7-13 *Collective work

The design departs from answering: What are essential caring infrastructures for you? Is it a collective, public kitchen, is it a communal living room, a shared bedroom or a laundry room? A queer ageing centre, a temporary occupation or a collective home facilitating emotional labour? From there, the research by design continues: you get to experiment with unfamiliar plan layouts, feelings towards materialities and speculative housing subsidies. The projects, in their final form, propose reconfigurations of care infrastructures that translate feminist and activist imaginaries into architectural reality: from political ideas to spatial organisation, material detailing and lived feeling.

Output:

-A graphic novel, understood in its broadest sense, that will serve as a tool to mediate between your project, the users, your positioning as architect and the broader public. It will be the medium through which you will present the story of your project’s users and the ideas behind your design.

-A relational drawing of the design proposal, explaining how social structures unfold in the physical space. The drawing will focus on representing how aspects of safety, intimacy and inclusivity are achieved through the arrangement of rooms.

-A model 1:33 of a fragment of the building. This model will explain a key moment in which materiality plays a decisive role in the creation of a collective domestic atmosphere.