PRESENTATION
B612associates is a Belgian office for contemporary architecture and urban design. Our studies include master planning as well as architecture, landscape design and scenography. Our strength is based on our curriculum of engineers and architects, but also clear understanding of urban planning, philosophy and history and theory of architecture. Those competencies have fostered our ability to capture and translate the essence and quality of each site into our projects. Specific needs and constraints of programs constitute the base and the catalysis of our reflection. The office has developed an efficient methodology based on holistic approach of the projects; taking into account their spatial, social, natural and urban environment while at the same time optimising their economic aspect as well as achieving creative and human spaces.
We are convinced by the essential contribution of multidisciplinary collaboration to our practice as well as by the necessity to develop sustainable means for architecture and urban design. Our expertise in green architecture has led us to large-scale studies of sustainable building and urban design with a definitive contemporary approach of the discipline.
]Founded in 1997, our firm has acquired a sound reputation for the quality of its design.
Publication, prix et distinctions
The work of B612ASSOCIATES has received recognition from both Belgian and international critics in various books, architectural magazines, and newspapers, among which the spanish well known a+t “density book” collection, “Bozar”, the Belgian National Fine Art center (Palais des Beaux Art), the “Belgian New Architecture” collection, edited by Prismes editions, the international architecture magazine “Detail”, as well as national newspaper such as “Le Soir”, “La Libre Belgique”, and the wider public in general.
Recipient of the New York based Architizer Prize as well as the Prize for Contemporary Architecture of the District of Uccle – Brussels, B612ASSOCIATES is also the winner of numerous competitions for public projects and social housings all realized or currently under realization. The firm has often been invited to present its specific approach of contemporary architecture and urban design at conferences and exhibitions abroad (London, Shanghai, Biennal of Shenzhen…) and in Brussels where they have been invited to lecture and exhibit their work at the Belgian National Fine Art center (Palais des Beaux Art). B612ASSOCIATES is the author of critical essays published in various architecture magazines and books.
B612ASSOCIATES has also been highlighted several times for its projects (Viaduc, Neerstalle and Bruyn) by the CIVA (International Center of the City and Architecture) as part of the Day of Architecture. The office was selected by BOZAR (National Palace of Fine Arts) as part of its series “N.I.C.H.E. As well as for the exhibition XX MODELS.
Philosophy
The work of B612ASSOCIATES is based on the integration of all the parameters that contribute to the quality of the project. We believe that architecture arises from the marriage of passion and rigor. We are working to produce original and pertinent solutions for each particular situation. Working as a multidisciplinary team contribute to achieving this objective.
Engagement
We believe in the existence of things as they interact with their context and we are interested in their relation to each particular situation. An architectural space exists only through the meaning it receives from and gives to its surrounding. The aim of our architectural work is to search for such a meaning and to offer people spaces with emotions that meet their needs. Our work is a search for emotion. Beyond ‘thinking‘ and ‘ acting ‘, architecture and urban planning also exist in terms of generosity and their quality can be measured by their ability to bring “feeling” to a situation.
Methodology
Our work follows fragile threads and evolves while trying to avoid rigid frameworks. To do this, we analyze the urban and architectural context of the studied project. We seek to discover the basic operations that have led to the create its surrounding. By basic operations, we mean the actions of successive interventions that shape a place according to different operating modes: position (position of units, surface, volume, mass), addition, repetition (repetition of an element, a rhythm, an operation), layering (layering elements of structures), juxtaposition, incision, division, insertion (insertion in a system, in volumes, in sequences), folding, opening, closing… We search the constituent logic of urban and architectural fabrics on which we operate. They are the guiding threads that we use during the elaboration of our project and that will guide its development both at the conceptual level and at the level of its materialization. This methodology allows us to follow a coherent reflection frame without restraining ourselves to some predefined configuration.