archiweek

Urban.brussels invited BC architects & studies & materials as curator of archiweek 2022. With the chosen theme 'Brussels is mine' BC highlighted the theme of extractivism from an architectural perspective on historical and contemporary architectural projects in the Brussels Capital Region. We focused on architecture that draws its inspiration from available resources. The extraction or harvesting of locally available raw materials was our guiding principle. We wanted to make Brussels - the city, the contemporary & traditional architecture, the surrounding landscapes – to be “read” from the story of these raw materials.

We used the topics of geo-sourced materials, bio-sourced materials and urban-sourced materials as the common thread for a range of visits. To link past, present and future, we distinguished three types of visits: visits about the sourcing of materials (e.g. Rotor, Natura Mater), historical architectural building (e.g. Rouge Cloître) and contemporary architecture that are exemplary in large scale re-use or revalorization of (waste) streams (e.g. Usquare Feder).

From 22 until 23 October 2022, 160 free guided tours in 22 selected projects were organised in close collaboration with Urban and Arkadia in French, Dutch and English. Three different workshops were hosted in collaboration with CIVA, Design with Sense, Sonian Wood Coop and BC materials during the weekend along the three sub-themes. Next to this four guided bike tours were also offered. To kick off the archiweek a debate was hosted at Reset. All these events were free and open to all.

For more information, find the website of the archiweek here.