MAIB_24: As Found – Ghent Belgium – Master of Architecture

As Found : Learn to design sustainable and fragile interventions in the city
(12/02/2014 – 28/05/2014)

The fragile essence of a place

The aim of sustainable development is to create and maintain a prosperous social, economic and ecological system. Sustainable urban design and architecture also includes this different subjects and complexity. That is why this kind of projects not only have to endure time or have to take into account the efficiency of using resources such as land, water, building materials, power supply…but also have to deal with the qualities of the environment. Understand the fragile essence of a place and learn about the relationship between the context and the architectural program can lead to a simple and obvious architectural project that fortifies the specific spot. The key to a conscious and coherent project is to provide added value to the environment by removing redundancy and add respectful contextual interventions.

As Found stands for a sustainable project that respects the identity and complexity of a place and social environment and that fortifies this location on every layer. Sustainability has to do with many elements, although in this design studio we will focus on the next subjects :

choice of location redesign redundant, eroded or content-less urban spaces that need to be fortified
understand the location all positive and negative characteristics of the site are investigated and analyzed a master plan provides spatial solutions to the wider context
the architectural input resonates with the context and gives it more value
minimal and conscious design through an intense examination of program and location searching for simplicity within the architectural design designing with minimal resources towards a sustainable project designing “intelligently” & “integrally” with building components & building materials

Site Ghent, (within the ’19^th century belt’) the city where the international students in this workshop will live for some months or a year is by excellence an area of research. On the one hand because in this way the students get the chance to learn about the city and on the other hand because an intense and frequent site research is possible without large displacements. On foot or bike they are asked to search a significant place where acting in redundancy is possible (without defined program). The attitude to be learned is that ‘a thorough reading of a location’ is necessary to achieve a good design. Analysis and design research on location is important. In the 3th week of the site research there is an appointment with the teachers on location. Program The program has to do with the ability to go to the essence of a spatial intervention on the chosen site. Each location ‘calls’ for a specific interpretation and program. Reading and understanding the place in a profound way can lead to a sustainable project. An important exercise is the critical definition of the program

in relation to the function to accommodate learn to simplify and search for the essence
in relation to the contextual characteristics, “calibration” of programs to the environment learn to see the difference between the relevant and the redundant learn that the area shows how the program can get a content learn to seek for a more value for the environment
in relation to the reality of sustainability learn to assess the impact of any intervention

Studio instructors: Christopher Paesbrugghe, Chotima Ag-Ukrikul ,Wim Goes , Petra Pferdmenges , Asiya Sadiq , Laurens Bekemans

cover image by Jasper Van der Linden