Architecture Workroom Brussels organised a Master Class for forty international students in order to generate innovative ideas for Brussels' urban development. The theme was significant population growth in Brussels. By 2020, Brussels’ population is expected to increase to 120% of the 2010 figure. How could this population increase be transformed from a problem into an opportunity? Christ & Gantenbein Architects and Office KGDVS led the Master Class in 2011.

Architecture students and schools could play an important role in the urban transformation process: by conducting applied research by design they could form a source of renewal for thinking related to spatial management. Therefore, in 2011, Architecture Workroom organised an international Master Class, as an extension of the Building Brussels exhibition on the theme of Brussels’ population growth. Forty students from all over Europe reflected on how the densification of Brussels could be shaped at five sites. They used typology transfer– a method by Christ & Gantenbein Architects and the architecture school ETH Zurich – based on the critical analysis of existing qualitative residential constructions. A publication containing the results of the Master Class provides food for thought for the urban debate in the form of innovative spatial concepts.

Types: masterclass

Year: 2011

Partners: Christ & Gantenbein Architects and Office KGDVS