Focused on the works of the Belgian architects OFFICE, founded by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen, BigMat Award member of the Jury for Belgium, ‘Architectural Works by OFFICE for the 21st Century’ presents a critical analysis based on archive documents. It also reconstructs the influence of OFFICE’s creative principles among the new generations of architects.

The OFFICE projects appeared in the early 2000s and gained prominence as new forms of digital collage with a cultural engagement. The author traces the evolution of their early ideas developed as paper architecture to the current buildings of a significant scale and presence.

The underlying argument of the book demonstrates OFFICE’s ability to preserve in every project the spark of a theoretical construction, which in most cases is carried out according to a rigorous economy of means. Even the new monuments for public institutions continue to be illuminated by a creative tension of radical superiority.

Published with OFFICE.

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen was founded in 2002 by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. Renowned for its idiosyncratic architecture, in which realisations and theoretical projects stand side by side. The projects are direct, spatial and firmly rooted in architectural theory.

Roberto Gargiani has taught the History of Architecture in Florence, Rouen, Paris, Venice and Rome. He is currently a professor of History of Architecture and Construction at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

This book presents OFFICE projects through a critical analysis based on archive documents. It also reconstructs the influence of OFFICE’s creative principles among the new generations of architects.

The projects are direct, spatial and firmly rooted in architectural theory. The firm reduces architecture to its very essence and most original form: a limited set of basic geometric rules is used to create a framework within which life unfolds out in all its complexity. Since its establishment OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen has earned a reputation as one of Belgium’s most successful and renowned practices, and one of the world’s truly original voices in presentday architecture. OFFICE engages in all architectural and urbanist design, creating projects of all scales ranging from furniture to masterplanning in Belgium as well as internationally. This practice is combined with academic research and teaching.

David Van Severen is -alongside Kersten Geers-, the founding partner of OFFICE KGDVS, one of the most successful and renowned architecture offices in Belgium and the world. Since its foundation in 2002, OFFICE has developed a vast body of works, both built and theoretical, which have contributed greatly to the shape of European architecture as we know it today. Their work engages in projects of all scales, from furniture to buildings to masterplanning, all of which are imprinted with OFFICE’s ideas and thoughts on architecture, developed throughout many years of teaching and research practice.