Cour du Quai is an adaptive food-centred urban system for community, learning, and exchange. The hub transforms a closed and inward-facing urban block into an open, permeable system driven by food as a catalyst for social and economic activation. 

Responding to the site’s limited public engagement and its underutilized relationship with the canal, the project establishes a new civic infrastructure that reconnects the urban fabric to the water’s edge. 

Food becomes the central medium through which community interaction, skill development, and local enterprise are fostered, positioning the hub as a permanent and inclusive driver of urban life and interaction.

The design strategy is structured around a carved central courtyard that extends through the block and permeable street boundary, establishing a spatial axis from street to canal. A new canal-facing building activates the waterfront with an open market and restaurant with apartments on top, while existing structures are adaptively reused to accommodate the new cooking school, green house, hostel facilities, and support spaces. The ground plane is transformed into an active public layer, hosting markets, a restaurant and social spaces that spill into the courtyard. To its left, the cooking school and green house form a visible learning environment, reinforcing a continuous cycle of production, education, exchange, and consumption.

Spatial permeability, flexible programming, and layered thresholds allow the public spaces and private apartments and hostels to coexist with defined boundaries that are flexible where needed.

As a result, the project redefines Quai de Mariemont as a site of collective participation and everyday activity. By integrating adaptive reuse with strategic intervention, the ViaVia Hub establishes a resilient urban framework that supports long-term community growth, economic opportunity, and meaningful engagement with the canal.

Football has a unique power to connect people across cultures, generations and social backgrounds. In Brussels, and especially in Molenbeek, street football is deeply rooted in everyday life and has become a source of talent, identity and community. This project builds on that universal attraction of the game to create an inclusive meeting place. 

Drawing inspiration from the empowering vibes and social cohesion found in football pitches in dense Brazilian favelas, we partner with the ‘Belgian Red Courts’ and ambassador Thomas Buffel, a former Belgian Red Devil. Aiming to bring Molenbeek’s young people and adults out onto the streets unified by a positive message.

We transform a typical cluttered building block into an active meeting place that provides a safe, constructive escape for the vulnerable youth facing domestic or school struggles, with a simple sports field at its core.

To translate these social ambitions into a spatial reality, we use the adjacent ViaVia hostel as the warm, social anchor of the site.

Our architectural concept revolves around creating a porous indoor-outdoor urban landscape. By intelligently designing the site with open sightlines, inviting courtyards, and transparent openings towards the street, we use architectural means to naturally generate a secure environment through informal surveillance.

Whether it is hosting an international football tournament where global teams stay at the hostel, an informal training sessions organised by volunteers or serving as a daily sanctuary for local kids, this project ensures that activities, human encounters, and organic supervision flow effortlessly into one another. Ultimately, it uses the hostel as a spark and the collective space as a beating heart, aiming to create a lasting, secure, and vibrant impact for the future of the Molenbeek district.

Located along Rue de Manchester in Molenbeek, The Creative Spine transforms an existing industrial complex into a four-level mixed-use cultural and educational hub centred on movement, learning, and community engagement. Responding to the fragmented urban fabric characterised by industrial activity, scattered public facilities, and limited communal infrastructure, the project strengthens the growing cultural identity of the area while establishing stronger connections between residents, creatives, youth, and visitors. Positioned opposite La Raffinerie – Charleroi Danse, the proposal reinforces relationships between performance, education, and everyday public life through shared programmes and interactive spaces. 

A permeable public route cuts through the site, transforming a previously closed industrial block into an active urban connector between Rue de Manchester and the Marimont side. Existing industrial structures and masonry elements are retained and adaptively reused, while selective interventions improve circulation, visibility, greenery, and communal access. The ground floor prioritises public activity through cafés, restaurants,, indoor gardens, gathering spaces, bicycle parking, a relocated grocery store, and creative workshop areas. Upper levels accommodate the culinary workshop, backpacker accommodation, residential units, offices, rehabilitation facilities. 

In collaboration with La Raffinerie – Charleroi Danse, the project incorporates performance support spaces, digital choreography labs, and rehabilitation facilities that encourage collaboration between professionals, students, and the public. Together with the learning centre for youth aged 10–18, these programmes create a socially connected environment that promotes creativity, education, inclusivity, and long-term community development.

Located at the intersection of Bree, Bloem and New Church Street, The Common Ground responds to the need for stronger social infrastructure within Cape Town’s inner city by creating a mixed-use urban hub where everyday life, hospitality and dwelling intersect. 

The project brings together locals, working families and travellers through a layered programme that supports community life while encouraging interaction and exchange across different user groups.

The architectural concept is organised as a vertical transition from public to private, structured through a series of layered thresholds and shared civic spaces. A public café at ground level extends the activity of Bree Street into the site, activating the urban edge and strengthening the relationship between the building and the city. Above this, a raised forecourt and reception platform form the social heart of the project, connecting visitors, residents and the surrounding neighbourhood. Embedded within this civic layer, the daycare acts as a protected but visible community anchor, creating opportunities for care, safety and everyday interaction within the inner city.Hostel accommodation and communal outdoor terraces occupy the intermediate levels, encouraging collective living and shared urban experience, while upper residential apartments provide quieter and more private dwelling spaces. Recessed balconies function as elevated urban stoeps, allowing residents to maintain visual connection to the city and mountain beyond. 

Through its layered social and spatial organisation, the project proposes a more inclusive model of inner-city living that strengthens community support, urban hospitality and collective urban life.

“a place for the unplaced” is an architectural intervention on cape town’s bree street that redefines urban hospitality by intersecting the daily lives of delivery drivers, creative students, and global travelers.

at its core, the project addresses the spatial needs for delivery drivers. by replacing the sidewalk with a dedicated micro-mobility hub, delivery drivers are provided a dignified space to park, recharge devices, and rest in communal areas equipped with amenities and recreational activities between shifts.

complementing this primary function is a creative workshop tailored for design students who lack safe, equipped environments for late-night model making and study. these programmatic anchors are tied together by a 40-bed viavia hostel. the hostel operates on a seasonal rhythm—hosting tourists during the summer peak and offering subsidized or free lodging to students during the academic year.

crucially, the architecture is designed to dissolve boundaries between these diverse user groups. shared lounge spaces and intersecting circulation paths encourage organic engagement, allowing visiting tourists, resting drivers, and working students to interact and share experiences.

situated in a district dense with architecture practices, the building’s transparent facade acts as an urban showcase. by visually exposing the workshop to passing professionals, the hub facilitates natural networking, transforming a place of refuge into a vibrant catalyst for community integration.

 The brief for CPUT students titled ‘Global Perspectives Part 2’ stipulated the transition between conceptual storytelling ideas to technical and architecture with depth involving materiality with adaptive reuse.The project focuses on the three layers consisting of Via Via Hub ,residential integration and a local function to promote engagement with the community. Considering passive design, we had to unpack the four urban layers and Kanala-Buurtmen.

As our response, ’ROOT TO SPICE ‘ aims to creates a connective tissue between the heritage of the site- 25 Buitengracht/Buiten Street,Cape Town,South Africa-and the modern street –New Church Street, bridging the gap between the locals and Via Via Tourists. Our concept focuses on the symbolic inter-relationships from ‘root’ (heritage) to ‘spice’(sensory)experiences.

We prioritize the exchange of information focusing on the Cape Malay Culture as it neighbours the site,while empowering local chefs to ‘give-back’ to the community. Buitengracht is currently a church hall used for rental parking. We approaching by preserving the sites’ identity by re-purposing the hall and creating a tangible dialogue between historic preservation and modern hospitality.

Our design speaks to the layers through tectonics of existing brick to steel features with a spiced toned aesthetic and feel assisting the transition from the Ground floor courtyard to private residential buildings bridged by semi-public spaces (Local market, Spice and Gin display along with the cooking classes).

InClothEd is an architectural project that brings together rest, sustainability, and social connectedness within a dense urban context. The design breaks through the compact character of its surroundings without disrupting the existing streetscape. Behind an introverted exterior, an open and green inner world unfolds, offering a sheltered environment for staying, meeting, and finding rest.

The programme combines two complementary functions: accommodation and a clothing exchange. Visitors can bring in used garments, which are repaired and washed on site before being redistributed to people in need. In return, they receive points within a circular system. These points can be used for accommodation and in the communal dining space. Guests are also encouraged to actively participate by bringing their own clothing to contribute to the exchange.

At the heart of the project lies an enclosed courtyard that connects both functions. This collective green space forms the social centre of the building and provides room for informal encounters, relaxation, and small-scale events. The open façade structure and transparent organisation allow visitors to observe the clothing repair process, making the circular operation of the project visible and tangible.

The building’s form creates a series of terraces overlooking the courtyard, encouraging interaction between users. While the closed outer façade shields the interior from the bustle of the city, the openness towards the courtyard establishes a strong relationship between inside and outside.

The entire structure is constructed in timber and designed as a demountable system. This makes the building flexible, adaptable, and sustainable over time. The project brings together architecture, ecology, and social care in a future-oriented place where reuse, encounter, and rest are central.

The name InClothEd encapsulates this ambition. It refers to the enclosing architecture that embraces and protects the inner garden, as well as to the clothing-based circular programme at the core of the project. At the same time, the name echoes the word included, highlighting the social intention of the design: a place where both people and materials are welcomed back into a larger collective.

Located in the multicultural Heyvaert neighborhood of Molenbeek, Soundscape aims to bring local residents and ViaVia travelers together. The core idea is to use music to connect people, share cultures, and give the community a new voice.

The project transforms the area by creating two very different spaces that sit side by side. On one side is a busy and lively public square. Next to it, an old brick warehouse has been updated with a new program. The warehouse now holds a radio station, recording booths and a small music hall and café. The energy from this music hub spills out into the square, where local food sellers share their meals, creating a fun place full of sound and life.

On the other side is a quiet, wild garden. This green area offers a peaceful escape from the busy city life of Brussels and to top it of there’s the community greenhouse with coffeeshop to match the relaxed atmosphere. 

Standing right between these two worlds the loud, energetic square and the calm garden is the ViaVia hostel, which features a tall tower and a gallery. This gallery connected to the building acts as a transition zone rather then a barrier, separating the two zones while also connecting them. Sometimes, performances and events even mix both areas into one big shared experience.

Overall, Soundscape creates a special place where nature and culture, noise and quiet, locals and visitors can easily come together. By focusing on music and community, the project hopes to pause the people and help this historic neighbourhood shine once again.