Same Same but Different

Architecture is a major game changer in the search for alternative resources. How can extraction not equate to exhausting or depleting the planet? That is what the Brussels office BC architects & studies & materials has been researching for years.

They work with age-old materials such as loam, straw and natural stone. But what they do with them and how, is radically different. What if a city yard, for example, became the largest harvesting site for building materials? For the firm, the large quantities of soil moved here are the raw material for circular building materials. They explore that potential to the full in all their projects.

In Z33, they present a sample of their practice through three projects: the former gendarmerie barracks Usquare Feder in Ixelles, private residence WOODSTOCK in Wallonia and the workspaces of Atelier LUMA LOT8 in Arles, France. In addition, together with the postgraduate Building Beyond Borders of UHasselt, they investigate the opportunities of ‘urban mining’ and renewable building materials in Brussels.