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Meeting with BC architects & studies
Architecture and the climate crisis. Social housing. Design as speculation and experiment. What drives young architects today?
We continue our series of meetings with selected architectural studios, which will share their work ethos, selected projects, how they have found their place on the domestic architectural scene, what being progressive means to them, and how they manage to sustain their practice within current professional and economic circumstances.
In November and December, we invite you to meetings with international studios — BC architects and Pihlmann Architects — which will take place at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw and the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław.
The guest of the November meeting will be Laurens Bekemans, co-founder of BC architects & studies (Brussels).
Laurens Bekemans is an architect, doctoral researcher, and university lecturer. His work combines architectural practice with research into building materials and circular construction processes. As the leader of BC materials, he develops methods for transforming local construction waste streams into new building materials — an approach that pushes the boundaries of conventional architecture. Among his projects is the Design and Research Laboratory within the Atelier LUMA campus in Arles, France.
During the meeting, Bekemans will discuss how architecture can function as a tool for systemic transformation — from design and material production to construction and education. His business-oriented perspective of “building as prototyping” invites a re-evaluation of the roles of designer, investor, and builder.
The meeting will not be recorded or streamed, as we aim for an open, genuine conversation and mutual exchange.
The series was initiated by the Warsaw-based studio TŁO, led by Michał Sikorski, which integrates the work of urban planners and landscape architects into architectural design. The studio creates public buildings and spaces, has published research on university campus environments, and prepared the exhibition Poetics of Necessity for the Polish Pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2023. In December 2024, TŁO won the international competition for the redevelopment and expansion of the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław.
