The Common Thread versus Wander Space

SO-IL

Hera Van Sande


Hera Van Sande


Hera Van Sande

SO-IL, or Solid Objectives, was founded in 2008 by architects Florian Idenburg (1975, Haarlem, NL) and Jing Liu (1980, Nanjing, CH). Describing their practice as an ‘agency 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 won the United States Artists Fellow Prize (2022). Other awards include the Prix de Rome (2014) and the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Prize (2010).

SO-IL has an installation in the garden of the convent on Boeveriestraat in Bruges, where the Capuchin Friars Minor settled in the 19th century. During the 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

RE-ST

Through projects and research processes, RE-ST architects 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. What are 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. We, as architects, have a social responsibility to activate this stray space. Their research project ‘litter space’ was honoured with the BWMSTR label in 2018, in 2022 they received the PIONEER AWARD 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.

Bruges Triennial 2024
13.04 – 01.09.2024

With Spaces of Possibility, Triennial Bruges takes to the streets of the historic city centre and Zeebrugge for almost five months with contemporary art and architectural installations.
Together with 12 artists and architects from all over the world, Triennial Bruges will hold up the slumbering potential of the ever-changing city for its fourth edition. How can a Unesco-protected historic city, where preservation is central, deal with concepts such as change and sustainability, and how can contemporary art and architecture create a new framework for this? With artistic interventions, the artists and architects challenge existing sites, connect city parts and search for hidden beauty.

Programme: triennalebrugge.be