Brussels Building Awards 2023

On Tuesday 14 March 2023, Architecture Workroom Brussels received the Pioneer Award, as part of the Belgian Building Awards 2023. This prize – organised by Palindroom/Architectura and Batibouw – is awarded every year to an individual or organisation fulfilling a pioneer’s role. The winner is pioneering by being ahead of the current and putting their neck on the line for an ideal that will push forward architecture.

The jury elected Architecture Workroom Brussels for the ‘positive and contagious energy with which they bring together citizens, governments and entrepreneurs to work on qualitative changes.’ By winning the Pioneer Award 2023, we are following the footsteps of other inspiring organisations and practices such as RE-ST, Vlaanderen Circulair and BC materials.

We are honoured and grateful to have received an acknowledgement like this within the context of the broader architectural industry and building sector. It shows that the impact on the daily practice of designing and building of the living environment, as we are striving towards according to our mission, is being valued.

We mainly see this prize as a stimulant for our team to keep on innovating, for putting the urgent transitions on the public agenda and letting these land through projects that we think are necessary.

Needless to say, we could not have received an acknowledgement like this without the engagement and involvement of all current and former Architecture Workroom collaborators, as well as the support of all (former) members of the board of directors. We consider ourselves as a workroom for collective intelligence, powered by our team members and external partners – this award therefore is a collective one, for everyone that contributed to AWB. Thank you for pioneering!

Within the framework of the Belgian Building Awards, Palindroom/Architecture published a podcast. Hanne Mangelschots engages in a conversation with Maarten Vanbelle (Atelier Vens Vanbelle) and Joost Raes (Carton 123), with considerations on housing quality in terraced houses, intergenerational living in allotments, (collective) renovation, living in an urban environment, and mixed use.

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WORKROOM

Since 2010, Architecture Workroom Brussels has focused on the future of our living environment. The organisation began as a safe haven to address the link between space and societal transitions, aimed at fostering a futureproof design practice, commissioning and building culture.

It has now become evident that the transformation of our streets, neighbourhoods, and landscapes is both a prerequisite and a lever for achieving societal goals in synergy. Yet we observe that these transformations remain difficult to imagine and implement. They span so many sectors and involve so many actors that responsibility falls on everyone, and therefore, ultimately, on no one.

That is why we make it our mission to create the space that connects them. And with this refined mission comes a new name: WORKROOM, House for transformation. WORKROOM is the shared space where the future of our living environment is not only imagined but also organised.

We are currently taking the lead on three mission-driven transformations:

  • SOCIETAL INCUBATORS - By 2030, stakeholders from the youth, culture, sports, care and education sectors will join forces to create renewed societal spaces that tackle loneliness and counteract the fragmentation and pressure on public infrastructure.
  • FOSSIL-FREE NEIGHBOURHOODS - By 2030, at least ten neighbourhoods will be underway with the transition to fossil-free energy in an inclusive and affordable way, with a view to completely phase-out fossil fuels by 2040.
  • SPONGE LANDSCAPES - By 2030, we will have achieved our water, agriculture and nature goals through a single, coherent approach at catchment area level, in which strong regional coalitions collectively enhance the landscape's sponge capacity.

To make these transformations a reality, WORKROOM works shoulder to shoulder with pioneering designers, local authorities, organisations and businesses, governments, knowledge institutions and impact investors.

Through co-creative design, we imagine shared pathways to the future in exhibitions, publications, innovation programmes and public programmes. These are the workrooms where we connect the actors capable of realising these transformations. From there, we design shared ownership and the organisational, funding and policy models that lead to real change.

The name is simpler. The stakes are higher. WORKROOM is the shared space where we tackle the social and spatial transformations that no one can achieve alone. In an era of polarisation, compartmentalisation and instability, that is perhaps the most radical thing we can do.