journal
Interview with BC architects & materials & studies
Bureau A.Z. founder Thomas Swann recently interview the Brussels-based BC architects & materials & studies for Port magazine. The practice is a pioneer in using ecological, local, bio & geo-based materials in a contemporary way. Find an extract of the profile below.
Laurens Bekemans, one of four founders of BC architects & materials & studies, is unequivocal when asked how he responds to fellow architects who argue they can only work within the imperfect, unsustainable building industry as it is. “I say that’s wrong. It’s true the system will not change overnight, and will not change from black to white. But if you’re able to imagine the type of impact you wish to have it helps you to understand the trajectory you can set out on”.
Bekemans and his co-founders, Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Ken De Cooman and Wes Degreef, certainly haven’t set out on an easy or conventional path. Their practice is now composed of three entities: BC architects, an architectural studio; BC materials, a cooperative creating circular, earth-based building materials; and BC studies, a non-profit education laboratory.
“If, in our first year, you had laid out the trajectory we would take, I would have said ‘Oh my god’...”, Bekemans smiles, looking relieved the founders nurtured the practice into its current form by evolution more than design. “We started out as friends at university and had an initial vision that went further than only building. This helped inform how we should grow as an office, not in size or in number of projects but rather to grow in impact.” And the impact they seek is ambitious: nothing less than a change in the building culture towards what they define as ‘bioregional, low-tech, circular, beautiful and inclusive design’.
journal
Interview with BC architects & materials & studies
Bureau A.Z. founder Thomas Swann recently interview the Brussels-based BC architects & materials & studies for Port magazine. The practice is a pioneer in using ecological, local, bio & geo-based materials in a contemporary way. Find an extract of the profile below.
Laurens Bekemans, one of four founders of BC architects & materials & studies, is unequivocal when asked how he responds to fellow architects who argue they can only work within the imperfect, unsustainable building industry as it is. “I say that’s wrong. It’s true the system will not change overnight, and will not change from black to white. But if you’re able to imagine the type of impact you wish to have it helps you to understand the trajectory you can set out on”.
Bekemans and his co-founders, Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Ken De Cooman and Wes Degreef, certainly haven’t set out on an easy or conventional path. Their practice is now composed of three entities: BC architects, an architectural studio; BC materials, a cooperative creating circular, earth-based building materials; and BC studies, a non-profit education laboratory.
“If, in our first year, you had laid out the trajectory we would take, I would have said ‘Oh my god’...”, Bekemans smiles, looking relieved the founders nurtured the practice into its current form by evolution more than design. “We started out as friends at university and had an initial vision that went further than only building. This helped inform how we should grow as an office, not in size or in number of projects but rather to grow in impact.” And the impact they seek is ambitious: nothing less than a change in the building culture towards what they define as ‘bioregional, low-tech, circular, beautiful and inclusive design’.