RE-ST replaces Baubüro in situ / Zirkular (CH)

Residu / Residueren

– reflection by Chris Poulissen

RE-ST is an architecture and research studio founded in 2010 by Dimitri Minten and Tim Vekemans and recently expanded with Bob Van Abbenyen and Evy Bouwen. Their workplace is located in the centre of Antwerp, where they, with a team of 12 architects and researchers, search for answers to urgent and complex spatial issues. Through projects and research processes, RE-ST seeks critical insights and visions of the remaining built and open space. Their thesis is that not every spatial need necessarily leads to a new building: 'The most sustainable building is the one that does not need to be built.'

In 1968, architecture critic Geert Bekaert asked: 'Why still architects?' He put his finger on what RE-ST feels like the key urgency that dominates our daily architectural practice today: naming the real needs of people and community. It is the architect's priority to make the community aware of its need for an adequate living environment. This perspective is the driving force behind RE-ST's design efforts, that leads to the formulation of new challenges and design briefs.

RE-ST is active in building and non-building, ranging from designing, repurposing and restoring buildings, study and master planning, optimisation of the building programme, multiple programming, to designing public spaces. The research into the gains of not building in 2014 was a first search for a conscious resistance to building, and also inspiration for several design processes of current architectural projects. In 2020, Wanderspace / Zwerfruimte (©2020, NAi publisher) was published, describing in detail the methodology for detecting and dealing with the under-utilization of space.

Reflection by Chris Poulissen | Chris Poulissen is an architect and manager at NP-Bridging (Ney Poulissen). NP-Bridging believes in an integrated approach to social issues that arise within complex infrastructure projects in combination with large-scale architecture and construction assignments. This approach is based on the conviction that infrastructure, landscapes and urban planning, as well as the spatial context and immediate surroundings of a construction site, should be designed, built and experienced as one coherent whole. Poulissen is also founder of Citibee, an initiative that is building an interconnected network of sustainable urban mobility hubs.