SO–IL
SO–IL, or Solid Objectives, was founded in 2008 by architects Florian Idenburg (b. 1975, Haarlem, NL) and Jing Liu (b. 1980, Nanjing, CH). Describing their practice as an ‘office for future culture’, they have rapidly developed an extensive and internationally acclaimed portfolio. From their home base in Brooklyn, New York, they work on projects that question the boundaries between inside and outside and how the human body relates to the built environment. Their designs – like bodies – are movable. They can expand, stretch or contract. They invite touch and interaction, weaving local political, social and economic narratives into an architectural gesture that invites disentanglement.
SO–IL recently won the United States Artists Fellow Prize (2022) for its work. Other awards include the Prix de Rome (2014) and the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Prize (2010).
SO–IL has created Common Thread for TRIBRU24: high-tech membrane in the garden of the former Capuchin Monastery. During Bruges Triennial 2024, this garden will open its gates to the public for the first time. This evening we will zoom in on the opportunities of detecting and activating underused space in the context of an urgent spatial need.
RE-ST
Through projects and research processes, RE-ST architects (2010, Antwerpen, BE) seeks critical insights and visions for the built and open space that remains to us. Their thesis is that not every spatial need necessarily leads to a new building. RE-ST is an architecture and research practice that searches for solutions to urgent and complex spatial issues. Through their projects and research processes, they seek critical insights and visions for the built and open space that remains to us. This leads to the formulation of new challenges and design assignments.
RE-ST’s practice explores the idea of stray space. In a world where there is too much building, the firm makes a call to be intentional with space. How can we detect opportunities? Can we detect and map underused space? Looking to the future, they start from what is already there and look for opportunities to deal with it creatively. With the word 'Wanderspace', RE-ST defines built or unbuilt space that is present everywhere and nowhere at different scales, wandering between (re)use or return to nature. It is space that is present today, that we use but underutilise. According to RE-ST, architectshave a social responsibility to activate this stray space. Their research project ‘Wanderspace’ was honoured with the BWMSTR label in 2018, in 2022 they received the PIONEER AWAR D and in 2018, 2020 and 2024 they were selected for the IABR Rotterdam. RE-ST was founded by Dimitri Minten and Tim Vekemans and expanded by Bob Van Abbenyen.
The lecture is free but registration is required.