BC Architects

Pieter T’Jonck: In 2008–09 BC Architects was still an arts platform, the non-profit association ‘Brussels Cooperation’. When did the focus shift to architecture?

Ken De Cooman: The ball got rolling when we met product designer Thomas Lommée. He developed ‘OpenStructures’, an open-source design platform. He wanted to expand it to an architectural scale. And for that he called on us. We came up with a building process in which the end user and reuse play a leading role. The life cycles of materials, water and energy were an integral part of this. The first architectural model of ‘OpenStructures’ was shown during the OpenStructures exhibition at Z33 in Hasselt in 2009.

PTJ: With the construction of the Muyinga library in Burundi, you made the move into practice shortly afterwards.

KDC: That project was essential to our development. Today we are still putting into practice what we learned there. We had come straight from university. The theoretical insights we acquired there couldn’t be replicated in Burundi. We had to start from scratch, with almost no money. We received support from the local NGO and the population, in particular from Salvator Nshimirimana, a genuine master builder. He taught us how to build with local materials such as natural stone, wood, sisal and adobe, sun-dried clay brick. Together with him, we developed a process to compact these ‘compressed earth blocks’. This enabled us to obtain a stone of higher quality.

PTJ: That project was immediately picked up on the international stage. Shortly afterwards, you built a school in Aknaibich in Morocco, among other places. Other assignments followed in Belgium, each time using local materials and simple techniques such as rammed earth. Then Grafton Architects, curator of the 2018 Venice Biennale, invited you to their main exhibition. How did that come about?

KDC: I suspect we surfed on the wave of excitement that surrounded Anna Heringer’s school in Bangladesh. That too was a community-based project in earth and other local materials. We also communicated at length about the building process in Burundi. And then it was very important that Sint-Lukas Brussels invited Wes De Greef and Laurens Bekemans, two other members of BC, to teach at the school. They were really interested in our approach. That helped us to spread our ideas and develop them theoretically.

PTJ: You also stand out from other architects by the hybrid character of your practice. The architectural firm BC Architects BVBA stretches the role of architect to community organizer and sometimes contractor. BC Materials produces clay bricks and clay plasters. The non-profit BC Studies is a think tank or consultancy. Why this diversification?

KDC: Once we started in Belgium, we mainly worked on small projects, small ‘gems’ that came about through workshops with volunteers. There were more and more requests for advice on circular construction. So you then have to ensure that local materials are given a ‘reliable’ image through research in cooperation with standardization institutes such as WTCB, the Scientific and Technical Centre for the Building Industry. We contributed to that, but there were no producers on the market. This is how BC Materials was born. For example, we developed plasters based on sand and loam from excavations in the Brussels Region. BC Studies, in turn, provides know-how, including in education. We are now contributing to ‘Building Beyond Borders’, a postgraduate master’s programme at UHasselt that we are organizing with Rotor and Sonian Wood. Such a programme has already allowed us to build up a strong European network.

PTJ: The law of 1939 on the profession of architect stipulates that architects must be independent. They can design and supervise but may never act as executor. Hasn’t your work method led you to clash with the Order of Architects?

KDC: We provoked that debate ourselves. A strict separation of the roles of designer, builder, material producer and standardization makes it difficult to develop innovative solutions for new problems such as pollution, depletion of natural resources or CO2 emissions. Within the framework of the Bouwmeester Label 2014, we therefore organized a debate on how things can be done differently. The Order participated in it. Since then, because of the urgency of these questions, the Order has begun to move in our direction. There is certainly a desire to change. But the legislator is still clinging to the existing law by saddling architects with more and more supervisory tasks of a public-law nature.

PTJ: Since your office counts some twenty staff members, you are no longer ‘beginners’. How do you see the future? Do you want to grow further?

KDC: We want to restrain growth in order to be able to continue doing what we want to do, i.e. combining research, education, manufacturing and design in collaboration with various parties. The French language makes the distinction between ‘usine’, which aims to always increase turnover, and ‘fabrique’, where the manufacturing process, craftsmanship and dedication matter greatly. ‘BC n’est pas une usine, mais une fabrique.’ We still want to work on projects that inspire in terms of both space and process. We can handle larger projects now. We are currently working with the British collective Assemble on the infrastructure for ‘Atelier Luma’ in Arles. That project of the Fondation Luma is under the artistic direction of Jan Boelen, who presented us at Z33 in 2009. We are developing new materials there, such as plaster on the basis of algae, quarry waste, agricultural residue, and such. We recycle bioregional waste flows in this way. These have been tested and prototyped, and construction has been under way for several months. We’re looking forward to it!