MASTERTHESIS

THE BRUSSELS SOCIAL HOTEL

The Brussels Social Hotel Master's thesis project envisages new temporary accommodations for Brussels’ disadvantaged population, integrated with public facilities for the neighbourhood and the city at large.

The project brief emerges from a body of research, design, and pedagogical work conducted in the city in recent years. In particular, the city’s housing landscape reveals both structural conservatism alongside unexpected experimentations. While Brussels is considered a relatively conservative city in terms of residential fabric—Belgium being a country where private property remains the dominant mode of housing tenure, where the provision of social housing is limited, and alternative models such as co-housing, housing cooperatives, or Community Land Trusts have only had a limited success, a closer examination of the city’s social dynamics reveals a residential landscape punctuated by informal and often precarious initiatives that provide temporary accommodation for those who fall outside conventional housing systems. These initiatives include temporary occupations, squats, anti-squat arrangements, shelter for migrants and paper-less families, and collective living and working spaces.

The Brussels Social Hotel addresses this condition and seeks to reconcile the current need for a temporary accommodation, for multiple stay durations, of a large part of the weaker Brussels population with the various historical approaches to providing temporary housing: the lost tradition of the residential hotel; the provision of dormitories and basic hygienic facilities for workers, the attempts to make shelters both a place of residence and rehabilitation and even of vocational training.

The project site is located in the municipality of Anderlecht and adjacent to the contested area of the Marais de Biestebroek, a heavily industrialised and polluted area that transformed into a spontaneous wetland after the deindustrialisation of the 1990s. Although the Marais is amongst the most desired areas in Brussels for real-estate speculators, it is also an area where a strong civic consciousness has emerged over the years to challenge such appetites and devote the land to social and environmental justice agendas.

The Social Hotel is part of this trajectory and aims to give a form to a much-needed institution that does not yet exist in Brussels. The Social Hotel is not conceived as an emergency measure, but rather as a reflection on alternative housing models—one that reimagines home as a shared, temporary, and evolving space. Rather than remaining a hidden refuge within the city, the project asserts itself as a recognisable architectural presence—one that makes visible the social function it serves and reaffirms the city as the place where its collective and social institutions express themselves through architecture.

FIRST MEETING
22nd OCT 2025, 9AM, FG EUW (L301 | 550)

Q&A SESSION
5th NOV 2025, 9 – 11AM, FG EUW (L301 | 550)

VISITEN
18th/19th NOV 25, Visite I
16th/17th DEC 25, Visite II
20th/21st JAN 26, Visite III

PROJECT DELIVERY
10th FEB 26

TEACHING STAFF
Martino Tattara, Andrea Migotto, Maximilian Kelle

ENTWURF

FACADES OF GLASGOW. THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HOUSING COMMONS

In contemporary housing design, floor plans are often rigidly constrained by regulations and real estate parameters, resulting in standardised apartment types. By contrast, facades remain one of the last domains for architectural expression. Here, architects can experiment with materials, patterns, and geometries, as well as the size, type, and arrangement of windows—or even ornamental features.

This studio will focus on a mid-sized collective housing project in Glasgow (Scotland), developed in collaboration with a local Housing Association (a local organisation providing for affordable housing), and supported by local architects and scholars. The first part of the semester will address the typological organisation of the building, including questions of accessibility, circulation, types, and collective facilities. The second part will concentrate on the design of the building’s elevations, exploring the facade as an expressive, three-dimensional space. Students will investigate how the facade can reflect both the collective identity of the building and its community, its relationship to the city and its history, and the individual character of each household.

The studio ultimately aims to define an appropriate architectural expression for a housing project that sits between private and public domains—an example of housing commons. We will work across scales and with physical models.

FIRST MEETING
15th OCT 25, 9 – 3PM, FG EUW (L301 | 550)

FIELD TRIP TO GLASGOW
25th – 29th OCT 25

DATES
12th NOV 25, 1AM – 6PM, FIRST REVIEW
26th NOV 25, 9AM – 6PM, SECOND REVIEW
17th DEC 25, 1AM – 6PM, PRE-WINTER BREAK REVIEW
14th JAN 26, 9AM – 6PM, THIRD REVIEW

SUBMISSION
3rd FEB 26, 3PM – 5PM

FINAL REVIEW
5th FEB 26, 9AM – 6PM

TEACHING STAFF
Martino Tattara, Andrea Migotto, Maximilian Kelle, Fabian Helbig

FACHMODUL D

THE USE OF TYPOLOGY: REASSESSING THE LEGACY OF AN ARCHITECTURAL IDEA

This course explores the notion of typology, whose revival has recently influenced contemporary architectural practice and debate. Typology has a long and layered history, evolving from the shared practical knowledge of builders to a theoretical framework for design thinking. Its origins can be traced back to classical antiquity, but it was not until the late 18th century that typology acquired explicit theoretical status. Quatremère de Quincy redefined type as an abstract, generative principle: a conceptual structure that could vary in form while retaining an underlying logic. Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand further advanced the idea by rationalizing design through the classification and recombination of classical elements—an approach that anticipated modern architectural logic. In the 20th century, typology was largely eclipsed by modernist functionalism, where the prototype supplanted the plural, contextual logic of type. The 1960s brought renewed interest through the work of Aldo Rossi, Giulio Carlo Argan, Rafael Moneo, and Alan Colquhoun. Rather than offering a single definition, these architects provided a set of conceptual tools that can be reinterpreted and reactivated in contemporary practice. Building on this historical foundation, the course specifically examines how typological thinking can inform current architectural and urban design and become a fruitful design tool. The format combines a series of lectures (including guest lectures) with a practical assignment.

DATES
16 OCT 25, 9.50AM – 11.30AM, Lecture, L301/A91
23 OCT 25, 9.50AM – 11.30AM, Lecture, L301/A91
06 NOV 25, 9.50AM – 11.30AM, Lecture, L301/A91
13 NOV 25, 9.00AM – 01.00PM, Tutorials Task 1 +2, FG EUW
20 NOV 25, 9.50AM – 11.30AM, Lecture, L301/A91
27 NOV 25, 9.00AM – 06.00PM, Reviews Task 1 +2, Kuhle
04 DEC 25, 9.50AM – 11.30AM, Lecture, L301/A91
11 DEC 25, 9.00AM – 01.00PM, Tutorials Task 3, FG EUW
18 DEC 25, 9.50AM – 11.30AM, Lecture, L301/A91
15 JAN 26, 9.50AM – 11.30AM, Lecture, L301/A91
22 JAN 26, 9.00AM – 06.00AM, Photographic Session, FG EUW

DELIVERY OF FINAL MATERIALS
12 FEB 2026, 12 – 2 PM, FG EUW

TEACHING STAFF
Martino Tattara, Andrea Migotto, Maximilian Kelle, Nina Kazancev