Everything is pre-existing, recycled or, if new, mobile.

Preexisting, apart from the structure and the enclosure, we found interesting elements to preserve; the temptation would be to empty everything and start over, but many installations and even finishes could be preserved and integrated into a new concept.

Recycled, in the mature market of Brussels it is possible to find recycled materials of high quality and benefits at very competitive prices. In addition, the Institute had materials from the previous headquarters (and other centres) that can be easily incorporated.

Mobile, so that the investments in new materials of equipment can be reused in the future regardless of functional or strategic changes.

The activities allocated in this floor are visible from the street as a way to highlight its public essence. A domestic library, a coffee hall, a multifunctional space with stands or the information displayed on the monitors.

A pixelated sky ceiling that encloses all the installations machines, stablishes a direct dialogue with the language use to solve the stair that connects the hall in the second floor that gives access to the classrooms.

The ground floor is a single and continous space. There are lines of vision that cross the space from one side to the other. The light comming through the windows of a façade can be seen from the other one.

However, there are clearly separate enclosures and routes; the library has a defined and controlled access point, but when we go inside it, we find places to rest, windows, points of visual contact with the rest of the program. Inside of the library route, the most sheltered angle hosts the children’s library area. Then, at halfway a ramp rise above the grount finishing the tour on a reading room furnished as a domestic space surrounded by books, but at the same time serving as a storefront and a stage.

The central space accommodates complementary and temporary functions, framed by curtains or light furniture, which also allows to use it as a classroom for teaching activities. It is a space between classrooms, used for waiting to start a class, informal talks, to manage enrollment periods, and also for extracurricular activities.

The velvet curtains work acoustically, while giving this space a theatrical character that facilitates the role play, much needed for language learning.

The circle is coated with recycled PETT felt, which is acoustically absorbent, and allows the communication of teachers and students to be sharp and effective. The coloured felt works also as a contrasting background that allows us to gladly reuse the existing chairs in the previous headquarters

After an open call, 30 international teams were selected to design a new building complex for the European Commission in Brussels with the offices of the Commissions, as well as childcare centres, a visitor centre, restaurants shops and public spaces with green areas.

The declared aim was to increase efficiency and reduce its environmental footprint, setting an example of sustainable construction.

The towers are cut to maximize the allowed breadth facing Loi, but their depth is also cut at 5 degrees east of the south to optimize solar exposure through the year. This results in six façade orientations.

Contradicting the brief, our proposal keeps the existing buildings of most recent construction, those on phase 2, which represent a substantial proportion of the requested surfaces.

The car park runs along Rue de la Loi, on the side of the plot, not affected by the structure of the towers. It is all underground from Loi, but is accessed at mid-level from Joseph II, providing options for sectoring, and quick flows.

Over fifty different stone and cladding varieties meet in the opaque façade, each one coming from the geological tradition of a current EU country.

RMdP is the first C2C (Cradle to Cradle) building in France. A regenerator of a former factory, it is an economic, cultural and environmental activator.

The MdP (House of the Project) hosts meetings, exhibitions, calls for tender, as needed to reactivate the 1.000 Ha area into the circular economy.

It is also improving soil and air conditions, eating up the chemicals left over from former industrial activity.

There were no earthworks, using driven piles that may be recovered; the structure and façades are designed for disassembly and reuse.

Materials are biodegradable or recyclable, with zero harmful chemicals

Sanitation generates nutrients, with the chimneys of three dry toilets as a main feature of the façade.

Landscaping cleans the soil; the building feeds on clean energies, with controlled solar exposure and the principle of the thermal onion.

Technology reuse is easy, the designers call it “superfurniture”: mobile equipment units to provide a specific function to any space.

¿Cómo conseguir que un piso tradicional de infinitos pasillos y minúsculos dormitorios se convierta en un ambiente espacioso… pero sin renunciar a la intimidad de los dormitorios?

La respuesta es: jugando con los techos. Todo el techo del piso es visible desde la entrada y el salón, lo que da una perspectiva amplia y convierte toda la superficie en un generoso loft. Dentro de este espacio aparecen unos muebles de madera cálida que protegen los dormitorios, estos con su propio techo a una altura más acorde con sus dimensiones. Dentro de los dormitorios, las proporciones son cómodas, y su blancura refuerza la luminosidad de las ventanas que protagonizan el espacio.

An energy producing park, built with recycled materials. Park activities, cycle and pedestrian lanes coexist in harmony with yards for storage and the management of construction material.

The park around the building is also built with a very controlled budget, and its features are productive systems, rather than an expense.

The city's road work department material storage integrates with pedestrian and cycling routes. It is part of a European Interreg MP4 project: Making Places Profitable.

Water harvesting in two steps: the roof provides clean water for all the toilets, the workshops, and the vehicle cleaning point.

Its construction methods, low impact and low cost, minimize imports and create local industry with simple, lightweight and compact materials, mostly locally produced.

It is flexible, to adapt to changing uses over time without investing more resources.

An old Madrid apartment becomes a place to live and work. The large available area is treated as a country plot, building a small house with a garden at one end, and leaving the rest as labor fields.

The house-shelter is built with lightweight and cheap materials, forming boxes that are stacked, juxtaposed or doubled, so that their interiors can be used according to precise functions.

In the fields of labor, the most subjective operation is carried out: the discovery of the landscape.

Scraping, smoothing, puffing, discovering episodes, traces, wounds, that appear before us in the distance. Distance of time: hand-painted papers a century and a half ago, overlays of different tastes, fashions, traces of different uses and ways of life. Distance in space: if we sit at a point in this open space, we have before us a panorama of episodes that invite us to approach. We get up called by a point of undefined colours, we want to see what it is, to feel its texture, its smell, to lose ourselves in its silhouettes. A sutured wound, a meeting between two times, a Pompeian red surrounded by a random mixture of vegetal, symbolic and geometric decorations. But, little by little, even the mouldy glue of the burlap was gaining our respect.

The Academie MWD sits at a uniquely varied crossroads; South: the main square; North: Wolfsputten, a protected forest; West: CC Westrand, a Brutalist community centre; and East a series of quaint suburban villas.
Image and texture dematerialise the volume: the façade seems to blend into the forest.

We carefully modulate scale and form: the jagged edge of the roof mimics those of the homes across the street, growing gradually to the cantilevered auditorium at the other end, and rising up to look face to face towards the monumental volumes of CC Westrand.

The building changes dramatically as we move along the sidewalk; walking towards the forest, we see forest; walking towards the grey Westrand we see greys, whites and blue skies.

Looking straight into the façade, we see the colours of a painting by A. Hoppenbrouwers, the architect of neighbouring Westrand.

La superficie expositiva de la propuesta es un sencillo panel pintado de color negro mate para que la luz natural destaque al máximo las obras de la feria.

La planta alta de LaSede del COAM es una galería acristalada, bañada en luz y con magníficas vistas de los tejados de Madrid.
La feria se recorre por el perímetro del edificio, junto a la luz y las vistas, desde donde se va accediendo a cada bahía expositiva que queda marcada por uno de los elementos singulares. De esta manera las zonas de exposición se abren a la luz natural, aunque siempre evitando la luz directa.