Building Beyond Borders - Architecture of Extr-a-ction
We are a research group of architecture&design enthusiasts who believes that construction can be done differently.
We are a collective who explores new possible paths to challenge the constraints of our professions.
We believe in architecture as a social and political act;
In its effects on society as a fundamental part of the process and in the act of building as a tool for innovation and
resistance.
We dream of building beyond humans, a future for all.
We are building beyond borders.
Local
Belgium
Brussels
Hasselt
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As individual(s) in partnership with organisation(s)
First name: Maria Last name: Glionna Gender: Female Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: University of Hasselt - Building Beyond Borders Postgraduate Program Nationality: Italy Function: Researcher Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rue de Venise 21 Town: Ixelles Postal code: 1050 Country: Belgium Direct Tel:+32 456 39 46 25 E-mail:glionna.maria@gmail.com Website:https://sites.google.com/student.uhasselt.be/wearebuildingbeyondborders/
First name: Elke Last name: Knapen Gender: Female Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: University of Hasselt - Building Beyond Borders Postgraduate Program Nationality: Belgium Function: Associate Professor at Hasselt University Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Universiteit Hasselt - Campus Diepenbeek Agoralaan Gebouw E - B-3590 Diepenbeek Kantoor E-A04 Town: Diepenbeek Postal code: 3590 Country: Belgium Direct Tel:+32 11 29 21 01 E-mail:elke.knapen@uhasselt.be Website:https://www.buildingbeyondborders.be/
Building beyond borders is a cross-border learning platform that aims to enhance knowledge and push action toward regenerative and distributive building processes.
In 2022 the it explores the regenerative and distributive potential of urban harvesting. The collective of students establishes its intentions into a 10 points Manifesto, develops its research in a prototyping lab in Z33 Art Centre, and shapes its actions into a one-month Agenda for the Open Construction Festival at ParckFarm, Brussels.
The prototyping LAB in the exhibition ‘Same, Same but different’ by BC-Architects&Materials in Z33 Art Center, Hasselt, is framed by a selected collective library which contextualizes the contemporary social, economical and environmental crisis to the construction sector, from depletion of resources and environmental degradation to social inequality resulting from policies or established patterns.
This general framework allows a better understanding of one specific story that unfolds on a grid of unbaked brick socles throughout the exhibition room: the ParckFarm project.
By using regenerative and inclusive design practices as tools to pry collective intelligence and strengthen social cohesion, the project investigates the potential of regenerative architecture&design. It tells the story of the hyperlocal harvesting of materials and regenerated resources through an eye that looks at the city as a mine, where all resources are already available.
The 'Open Participatory Construction Festival of Building Beyond Borders', June 2022, is a one-month agenda of construction workshops in which a number of targeted interventions for the regeneration of the ParckFarm greenhouse are designed and built. Inclusive processes extend the act of building beyond its premises: a collection of lectures, open talks, community parties, radio shows, and communal meals enrich the program and open the debate on contemporary architecture to a wide public.
urban harvesting
inclusive & participatory design
regenerative architecture
hyperlocal resources
city as a mine
The main subject of investigation is Urban Harvesting, which brings a challenging way to look at our cities. They are not just places where people live and consume, but 'mines', places where actors or activities produce resources themselves. Urban harvesting means investigating all possible options for reusing the full output of a city and all potential resources within the city itself, including its social capital. It's about understanding how an urban organism can reorganize itself to the maximum use of its own possibilities, reducing consumption and limiting inflows.
Through the Parckfarm Project, BBB explores the potential of the city of Brussels through a number of punctual interventions. The 'hyper-local brick', a key composer of the new interiors of the farm prototyped for the Z33 exhibition, for example, is designed with unbaked waste soil from local excavation sites in Tour&Taxi and realized through a participatory process that involves the local community in the making.
The plastic red boxes which were originally composing the shelving system, are dismantled and reused in participatory and regenerative design workshops in collaboration with local designers such as Stef Lemmens and Sep Verboom. They become stools, lounge modules, desks, and objects people can take home at the end of the workshop, to keep a piece of the history of Parckfarm. Some are exchanged with local actors for other materials needed for the renovation like waste wood reassembled to form patchwork pieces of design.
The project aims to re-establish or strengthen the cycle of life, material, and resources that have always existed in our cities, today made invisible by the formal economical systems dominating the world of construction. It revives forgotten participatory practices, and gives usefulness again to 'waste' products which would have never been considered as such just a century ago, to give voice to the many non-human beings which are a fundamental part of our urban system.
The learn& act program unfolds on three paths of investigation on materials and resources; locally geo-sourced with low carbon impacts, such as unbaked excavation soil, concrete debris, and other construction by-products; bio-sourced, as living willows or keystone plant species; re-used or up-cycled materials, like post-consumer textile. They become fundamental elements of design, calling for aesthetics of their own, pushing us to question the way we do architecture today and the aesthetic standards this concept comes with. The beauty of the 'new' is questioned to show that added value can be seen in objects which are self-made, and therefore more suited for appropriation or specific use. Objects or materials with a history can evoke a sense of belonging so much more than shiny brand new items! An unbaked adobe brick speaks the language of so many cultures; many can identify and recall memories of past times in their countries of origin. Natural materials and living elements can contribute to the creation of safer and calmer environments, a key factor in the design of community spaces. Participatory construction means that everybody can - literally- put their own signature on the made objects. In this way we can open the discussion on regenerative architecture to a wide public: one of the main objectives of the Parkckfarm Project is to bring the discussion outside the walls of a museum to the city itself, where everyone can understand and participate. To achieve this, the collective firstly identifies the key values of the initiative in a manifesto, makes a survey of potential partners in the city of Brussels, gets in contact with the many 'change-makers' already active in the city, and finds a perfect ground for an experiment in Parckfarm, a community-run organization which is the gravitational center of local urban life, in one the most controversial zones of the city, where major development processes and bottom-up initiatives find common ground for discussion.
The social synergies that influence and catalyze urban dynamics are a precious resource for regenerative architecture. BBB explores these dynamics with some experts in the field, who study architecture from an anthropological and philosophical perspective.
The festival's opening event is a lecture by the critic and activist Gideon Boie - 'Architecture of desire'. BBB invites him to point out the lack of political thinking and acting in architecture and in architectural education, where social and inclusive practices stay marginal to the main debates. For Boie, ParckFarm is an example of an architecture for the 'commons'. A place, an engagement with a diverse team of people who claimed a piece of nature in the city for collective activities. As D. Petrescu puts it, 'It becomes a collective bricolage in which everyone projects their desire'. BBB's festival follows this logic, opening its agenda to different desires & actors, observing local dynamics, and acting to strengthen and provide tools for innovation.
A second idea put forward by Boie is 'The spatial setting organizes a laboratory of antagonisms'. The festival makes time and place for negotiation and collaboration between very diverse groups of people and organizations. Parckfarm itself is a place under constant 'negotiation', a stage where many antagonisms take place, where the local communities confront the pressure of major developments and the massive influx of new and wealthier residents to the site. To conclude, a quote by the philosopher L. De Cauter, "Closure and scale are the Achilles heel of the commons". In 8 years of activity, ParckFarm succeeded in opening up the closed nature of the start-up non-profit organization to everyone, broadening its scale of activities, and constantly seeking to connect with new audiences. BBB's festival fits in, connecting architecture students, practitioners, and researchers with the reality of the commons, its forces&dynamics laying new paths for action.
The outcomes of the project are considered positive in an ecological, economic, and social aspects, followed by consistent, honest feedback and support by the users and the community of the park. The time factor took a primary role in the execution process and the work on-site proceeded without the need of closing the space to the public. In contrast, the audience got spontaneously and intentionally involved, which made the building process and the festival month truly public and open to everyone’s engagement.
The participants and the visitors could see and experience a different building process where the outcomes could not be completely predicted, witnessing the versatility of the designers in facing new challenges in creative ways. The social aspect of the project alone made the project more real and closer to everyone’s heart and it added value to the energy and effort put into it. Their involvement secured them with a sense of appropriation and value for their work, which will ensure continuous care and maintenance of the place for as long as they want to be a part of it.
BBB is set up by a group of 21 international students from around the globe, with degrees in architecture, design, communication, and economics for the postgrad course at the University of Hasselt. The theoretical framework provided and the research developed by the students come from local, regional, and international actors and inputs, looking at global questions from a local perspective; moving from excess to sufficiency, from linear to circular, and from depletion to regeneration.
One of BBB’s first actions is to scout Brussels-based entrepreneurs and innovative minds who are bringing the concept of regenerative thinking and action into reality. Among others, Rotor, whose approach centered around reclaiming material particularly influenced BBB’s outlook on upcycling, which reinforces a holistic use of existing materials, while confronting the abundance of waste, posing threat to the circular living system. The focus on upcycling teaches a great lesson on design, from principles that make repurposing with low energy practical (e.s. temporary adhesives join components in the exhibition room) to designing spaces for repurposing, creating opportunities for future activities through interchangeable use. BBB can further grapple with the idea of circular design within the urban context by gaining knowledge of its surroundings and working with the byproducts of neighboring construction businesses. The idea is to develop branches of collaboration and platforms for sharing materials & services to establish a close-knit community.
Parckfarm is a place where social & natural intelligence collaborates through the challenges of current times. The Festival reaches out to different communities, using local radio programs, neighborhood parties, and cooking classes as media to target a public that would never be reached from the walls of a museum; the educational objectives are pursued through lectures, city visits, workshops for adults & children, and guided exhibition tours.
For the interventions in & around the ParckFarm an 'architectural design' was initially created based on specific needs: practical storage space, a canopy against the sun and rain, and shaded areas in the garden.. This was then tested against the feasibility of 'making it yourself' with materials that were bio-based, natural and or reused, locally available. Besides the discipline of design, we can also speak of product and material development. A pipe-coupling joint for a canopy was developed for instance from rescued steel and PVC, in collaboration with Engineers from the University.
In collaboration with the landscape artist Y. Knevels, we created shaded areas and biodiversity sanctuaries. We planted willows to build and shape huts. During the festival, in collaboration with the children, an access path with rescued wood logs was created for the vegetable gardens and orchards on the slope of the ParckFarm site. Other plants alongside the path make room for biodiversity to develop.
Besides theoretical and practical skills, we had to have other qualities: planning, developing workshops with children and adults and developing communication tools. The format of the Festival brought in new communication challenges, like the distribution of ideas and choosing the right format to bring interested people together. A biweekly series of lectures and walks with experts addressed a specialized audience and offered opportunities for discussion.
The added value was that the students learned skills from each other, from specialists, from local actors, and from participants in the lectures and workshops. We broadened the audience of ParckFarm, getting everyone to familiarize themselves with new know-how, and working together towards a common goal. The BBB students and all participants alike became change makers for the built environment learning from each other, by thinking and exploring, by reflecting and acting, and by building and distributing the knowledge.
The innovation lies in the immediate testing of theoretical knowledge on regenerative architecture in a concrete space and for a specific group of people where the interventions have an effect on daily functioning. Brussels becomes a mine and on the forehand, none taught it would be possible to build with self-made, exchanged, or free material.
The research goes very deep - for the self-produced adobe brick, for example, this includes research into the composition and use of the local earth, crushed concrete as a binding agent, and straw from a local farmer to build internal walls/plinths for storage. At the same time, the project goes very broad, as brick-making, is done with children, women, or students. This connects back to ancient construction traditions that are common to many local communities.
The combination of theory, research, self-making, building, adapting, collaborating on an experiment grows organically in a process that is instructive and innovative for architects and designers. It becomes a 'free space' on a small scale where the potential of new solutions can be tested, far from common construction processes or academic methods.
Another innovative aspect is that this research is also immediately linked to sensibilize an audience, multi-cultural and local, which is unfamiliar with the issues of sustainability on a construction or architectural level. So the social, inclusive, approachable, and communicative aspects generated by the project dynamized a local community. The ParckFarm and all the food& nature-oriented organizations associated with it, through the Festival find a ground for exchange on the topics of 'urban harvesting' and 'natural intelligence'.
Innovative at last, is that in a controversial urban environment, neighbors rolled up their sleeves to create a sustainable city project in collaboration with experts and local authorities. The ParckFarm festival is accessible to all in terms of content, finance, time, age, or gender.
A crucial factor for the initiative is the education aspect as the founding base for close collaboration of the students in the first place. While the ideation and development steps of a similar initiative might change based on different contexts, having an agreed general goal and sticking to the main ecological, social, and economic principles, leads the way to successful intervention in the built environment and its group of beneficiaries. In the case of Parckfarm, social exchange and collaboration are there, we only needed to include them in our design and build process from the very first steps. In other places, the process could be designed more with the purpose of social inclusion and relationship betterment. In both cases, the main goal is not to build for the sake of building, but based on the needs and common choices of the users.
The methods used in the refurbishment project of Parckfarm began and ended with three main principles - designing together with the community, proposing smart and healthy solutions to the needs of the users, and only working with natural and ecologically-sourced materials or reused building components. A flexible mindset is the most important asset in this process and it was the main character that held the whole initiative together even in the most difficult times or complications.
In conclusion, the users, the material sources, and the building process are the main factors that make up a project of this nature. The designers, builders, and users alike need to go into the process with an open mind and a willingness to learn from the process and recognize the impact on the final outcome.
The design process started with elaborate discussions with the managing team of Parckfarm on the space's and its users' needs according to their plans and
activities. The requirements covered only the most basic functioning needs for the place and its developing program. With this sufficiency mindset, we discussed each idea in detail until everyone was in accordance with the design and the main framework. With a limited budget and a workforce composed of mostly architecture and design students, the project bore a range of insecurities and uncertainties, but with a well-defined common purpose and a strong will to see their ideas materialize. Henceforth, the students took on the role of the material researcher, designer, builder, and that of a social activist with a one-month festival program promoting circular practices and regenerative materials to the participating audience.
The design and execution process followed a flexible framework based on material availability and empirical practices, which was soon deemed to be sufficient for the completion of a small-scale project. All the materials used in the interior refurbishment were repurposed elements, such as repurposed wood beams composed of different types, salvaged fired bricks, and earth bricks molded and masoned by the students.
Overall, the complete planning and building procedure required adaptive adjustments on a daily basis, especially during execution. Challenges such as
the unavailability of similar building components in large amounts required quick adjustments to the initial idea, imposing the use of slightly different parts but with equally pleasant results, which gave a sense of authenticity and uniqueness to the project. Each step of the project was executed within the planned budget and timeframe and it produced no new materials in completing the work. This makes the project, as small an intervention as it is, an example of a regenerative way of building.
Building Beyond Borders (BBB) program gave us a platform to educate and demonstrate the benefit of natural construction materials that were lost to time and to connect with the societal primordial instinct of belongingness.
Primarily, these materials which are geo and bio-based potentially can be the answer to decrease the risk of energy poverty and reduce the environmental impact. Using natural materials makes a space more breathable and its flexibility in usage not only addresses new builds but also renovated building stock. Thus mitigating the impact of the building sector on climate change. Also using such materials brings down not only the operational carbon footprint but also has a huge impact on embodied carbon reduction which ultimately reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. BBB initiatives have been specially worked on in the local ecosystem of Brussels and it was an eye-opening experience that low-impact living is possible in one of the highly dense cities of Europe in terms of circular material consumption.
Secondly, BBB projects also have a very humane socio-initiative. We distinguish ourselves as activists trying to connect the thread to the needle and weave a tapestry of social justice. Throughout the project, we demonstrate that through design choices you can bring awareness about the kinship between nature and its inhabitants. The project “Parckfarm” under BBB also teaches us how the harmonious existing settlement can be threatened in the name of development. The said project was developed not only through consultation with the user but together with the user to enrich the two-way learning experience. Thus implementing “design for all” through “caring architecture”.
BBB focused on a couple of attributes in line with all the members coming from various professional backdrops. These attributes were the key to unlocking the single common objective, to attain sustainable climate concord. Prototypes and solutions were tested and exhibited at the Z33 museum, and later realized in the “Parckfarm” project, in 3 chapters.
Firstly, “Social thinking” had a huge impact on how to actively shape solutions prioritizing the place and the people. This was achieved by framing a ten-point manifesto: Limitlessness, conventional processes, knowledge, value, material limits, fears, resources & waste, time, egos, and anthropocentrism.
Then the idea of “Natural Intelligence” configures as a service to the community and the city by sensitizing the notion of biophilia. BBB introduces several interventions and organized several workshops which introduce children as well as adults to the endless possibilities of bio-sourced and salvaged materials in a whimsical way. A few prototypes of willow domes and shelters for local species were built to show how easy it is to increase biodiversity in the city with minimum effort.
“Reuse Habits” aims to change the perspective of people on how they view waste. BBB investigates the potential of several waste streams and finds ways to reincarnate. For example, bricks were made
from textiles that would normally end up in the incinerator, and pillows are filled with discarded textiles while the covers are made from the wasted tarp. In addition, BBB also used the trap to make a canopy for the ParckFarm project.
Lastly, in “Urban Earth Mining” the excavated waste soil from under the city and several throwaways are used to make bricks. Unlike conventional bricks, these bricks are unfired and made exclusively from the Brussels ecosystem. Variations in the recipe result in bricks with unique characteristics, in color, texture, and mechanical qualities which have been used in the project as its founding element.
The initiative finds its strength in the cross-disciplinarity of its interventions and the plurality of the actions. The simple architectural question of the renovation of a space is approached from plural perspectives, made complex by considering its impact on a wide scale: from the human scale of appropriation and effective use, to the scale of procurement of materials. The architectural students and participants alike are challenged to become sociologists, builders, tailors, cooks, gardeners, teachers, activists. They are encourage to challenge the established design methods by confronting themselves with the reality of the impact that even the smallest architectural intervention causes on the urban tissue.
