Cities are sites for the extraction of profit and wealth, where capitalist delusions of grandeur materialize in the most delirious ways. Real estate, at times in collaboration with city authorities, continues to project newer and bigger developments on top of existing lived realities. In the process of enacting their fantasies, entire neighborhoods and communities are violently wiped out. Many of these processes remain ongoing, even though the wounds of past events are not yet healed.This is the case for Brussels North, a district deeply affected by trauma. The city’s economic optimism that followed the 1958 World Fair, and the establishment of the first European institutions that same year, prompted the conceptualisation of the Manhattan Plan. This urban, modernist master plan, euphorically oriented towards its American namesake, envisioned the Northern district as a business hub connected to an immense highway network. The plan was never fully realized; only two of the originally eight planned World Trade Center towers were erected, causing, however, the demolition of an entire neighbourhood and the eviction of its inhabitants. Enthusiasm fainted, forcing the city administration itself to enter some of the buildings.
Such aggressive strategies of urban renewal have inevitably forced cities to become places of resistance and emancipatory struggle. Massive protests that followed the Manhattan Plan prevented authorities from pursuing further demolitions of the old city fabric. Today, Brussels North District is being reinvested in once more, with renewed optimism.How to deal with trauma? In this dramatically monofunctional district, investors and planning authorities have recently agreed on a 10% public utility within every new construction and renovation. We will use this as an entry point to question and rethink the notion of the public, as well as its mirror, the counterpublics.

Being densely inhabited environments, cities carry the immanent potential of radical change due to the continuous collective reinterpretation of urban culture. Through carefully listening, observing and collaborating with a variety of local positions, we will gain a deep understanding of the complexities at play. We will become active and intervene as designers while being aware of the paradoxes of practice. Sometimes making something sets unforeseen processes in motion. We will identify underlying risks, such as gentrification, commercialization and displacement, to prevent another chapter of trauma for Brussels North.

Further, we will ask ourselves: How to relate to utopian visions of the past? How to deal with the decaying and failed structures of burgeoning times? Even more so, within an overbuilt world facing ecological collapse?

The studio‘s endeavour is threefold: to strengthen the students' literacy/awareness with critical spatial theory, to articulate individual positions and to test alternative architecture practices and doing so by engaging and learning with and from artistic practices. The design studio will be tightly knit with a diverse group of local actors, We will cultivate a reading club, propose interventions in Brussels and Zurich, host a symposium and curate an exhibition.

Studio Brussels – Paradox of Practice

– Phase 1: Trauma I-IV
– Phase 2: Paradox of Practice
– Phase 3: Curation
– Fieldtrip to Brussels 10-11.10.2023

Urban Practice

Design Studio

Open Public Structures

Design in Dialogue

Deconstructing Power Dynamics

Europe

Brussels

Power

The first excursion, on 11 June, was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. A new date will be announced on our website shortly.

On the occasion of the double exhibition 

 (VAI) and the NEWROPE Chair organize a series of excursions and dialogues on how designers can take care of the future of our planet. Each of the excursions on June 11, August 20 and September 3 focuses on another part of Belgium.

During a day long bus tour, we will visit a selection of projects that are presented in the exhibition 

Care for Space for Care - Scenes from Flanders and Brussels

. Each excursion is followed by a public dialogue between the architects, excursionists, the team of VAi and NEWROPE and (other) invited guests.

 takes place on Saturday 11 June and combines a visit of Sporthaven by Import.Export Architecture with Huis Perrekes of NU architectuuratelier. A 

 includes visits to the observation tower in Negenoord, a project of De Gouden Liniaal Architecten, Ecotron of noAarchitecten and ends at Z33, a project of Francesca Torzo. The 

 contains visits to Le Rideau, a project of OUEST and Grand Hôpital in Charlerloi by Bas Smets. The three excursions will each treat a combination of the three themes of the exhibition (interdependence, maintenance and posthumanism), making this a variation of different insights on caring architecture.

For more infomation and to register, please follow these links:

– Date first excursion: 11.06.2022
– Start excursion: 11:00
– Price excursion*: €12
– Location excursion: Antwerp (exact location will be communicated after registration)
– Start debate: 17:00
– Entrance debate: free, but you need to book a free ticket
–  Location debate: VAi/De Singel, Desguinlei 25, 2018 Antwerpen
– Production: Flanders Architecture Institute, De Singel and NEWROPE
– With support of: the Flemish Community
– Other dates:


*If you cannot afford the ticket for the excursions please contact us with a short note of interest via email to Elise Verstraete: elise.verstraete@vai.be

 in Antwerp, Belgium, are focusing on the impact of care on the built environment with a double exhibition:

 Critical Care: Architecture for a Broken Planet

, an exhibition developed by the Architekturzentrum Wien, is a plea for greater care and collaboration in architecture. After stops in Vienna, Zürich, Dresden and Berlin 

will link the international case studies from 

 to projects from Flanders and Brussels. Interdependence, maintenance and posthumanism are the anchor points for the further exploration of care in architecture.


Visit the 

Focus on care

School of Transformation

Exhibition

Changing a Culture

Excursions and dialogues - Care for Space for Care: Scenes from Flanders and Brussels

Culture

Care

Collectivity

We cordially invite you to a day-long program, on Friday October 29, revolving around the question how design(ers) can have an impact on the power structures that are shaping our world. The program is organized in collaboration with 

. The Power Day will take place in the Design in Dialogue Lab in Zurich-Oerlikon and consists of two parts:


Part I – 10:30 - 16:00: Power Game:

We start the day with the public part of the Power Game, a role-playing exercise that teaches participants how they can effectively use their power and influence. Urban transformation is intricately tied to power. If you want to create positive change through design, and mobilise people, it is crucial to understand power structures and how to navigate them.

, a former city council member and deputy mayor of Vancouver. She teaches about power literacy at the University of British Columbia and will help us to discover, express and strengthen our own power and ability to mobilise others.

The game starts on Thursday afternoon at 13:30. If you want actively participate in the game, you can register until Wednesday 27 October at 18:00 by sending an email to Lukas Fink: fink@arch.ethz.ch. If you only want to attend the public part of the program on Friday, there is no need to register.


Part II – 18:00 - 20:00: Power Panel, followed by an apéro

The Power Game will be followed by the Power Panel, a public presentation organised by 

 that allows graduates whose final projects dealt with power-related subject matters, to present their work and share their personal insights.

Designathon is a Zurich based experimental platform for new ideas. Over the past two years Designathon has been critically engaged with the topic of power and systems of oppression. The organisation looked into structural, historical and personal dimensions of power systems and organised several formats to start a discourse with a wider audience.

On this occasion, Yao Liu, Shafira Nugroho, Véronique Rebetez and Gina Gysi will share their projects and insights on the topic. Following their presentations, we will engage in an open panel discussion to enforce a lively discussion. During the apéro you will get the opportunity for further exchanges.



Entrance to the Power Game and Power Panel on Friday is free and open to all. To register and get your free ticket click 


– Event: Power Day
– Date: Friday 29 October, 2021, 10:30 – 22:00
– Location: Design in Dialogue Lab
– Address: Neunbrunnenstrasse 50, ONA J25, CH-8093 Zürich
– Organisers: NEWROPE Chair/ETH Zurich & Designathon
– Entrance: free to all, Covid certificate required

Power Day 

The Power Day marks the end of the so-called Seminar Week, which is organised by the NEWROPE Chair and lasts from Monday 25 until Friday 29 October. This week-long programme consists of a series of excursions and meetings with experts that allow you and other participants to discover and discuss the impact of power hierarchies and dynamics on the ways in which we design and develop our environments. For more information about the Seminar Week click 