Workshop week in the summer term 2023

The summer term workshop took place during the white week, from the 31st of May to 3rd of June. This year, three courses took part simultaneously: the bachelors’ as well as the masters’ elective course, and the students completing the year-long M2 project.

Within the course earth construction workshop, bachelor students completed a pavilion which built on the work of the previous years’ workshop. The ambitious design proposal included a curved brick wall – using factory-made loam bricks – and a wall built with unfired earth bricks. The students constructed both in the span of three days, learning different bricklaying techniques and masonry tricks of the trade.

The pavilion was topped off with a shed roof, reusing an old truck tarpaulin and steel beams. A number of tension belts connect the roof to the walls and the grounding plate, and make the entire construction easily demountable.

The master students of the elective course geosourced prototyping workshop acted as construction teams for the students completing act 3 within their M2 project the architect changemaker. Each team built a 1:1 scale model of a prototype, which had been designed by the M2 students in the course of the semester. The approaches and techniques varied from using a self-developed mortar to fully ramming a tried and tested material mix using earth from a local quarry. The individual formworks had been engineered by the M2 students, as well as the planning of the construction. This entire process was a complex undertaking, but all students were highly motivated and really pitched in – we ended up with three beautiful prototype models!

With so many people on site in Brussels at BC materials, the construction plot was a busy hub of many different things happening at once. The weather played its part as well and ensured warm and sunny days throughout the week. Lectures from BC staff and a visit to the Parckfarm project by BuildingBeyondBorders rounded off the week.

Workshop week in the summer term 2023

The summer term workshop took place during the white week, from the 31st of May to 3rd of June. This year, three courses took part simultaneously: the bachelors’ as well as the masters’ elective course, and the students completing the year-long M2 project.

Within the course earth construction workshop, bachelor students completed a pavilion which built on the work of the previous years’ workshop. The ambitious design proposal included a curved brick wall – using factory-made loam bricks – and a wall built with unfired earth bricks. The students constructed both in the span of three days, learning different bricklaying techniques and masonry tricks of the trade.

The pavilion was topped off with a shed roof, reusing an old truck tarpaulin and steel beams. A number of tension belts connect the roof to the walls and the grounding plate, and make the entire construction easily demountable.

The master students of the elective course geosourced prototyping workshop acted as construction teams for the students completing act 3 within their M2 project the architect changemaker. Each team built a 1:1 scale model of a prototype, which had been designed by the M2 students in the course of the semester. The approaches and techniques varied from using a self-developed mortar to fully ramming a tried and tested material mix using earth from a local quarry. The individual formworks had been engineered by the M2 students, as well as the planning of the construction. This entire process was a complex undertaking, but all students were highly motivated and really pitched in – we ended up with three beautiful prototype models!

With so many people on site in Brussels at BC materials, the construction plot was a busy hub of many different things happening at once. The weather played its part as well and ensured warm and sunny days throughout the week. Lectures from BC staff and a visit to the Parckfarm project by BuildingBeyondBorders rounded off the week.