Master Class 120% Brussels

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than making a portrait of
the selected cities, the study
indexes and describes these
architectural typologies. By
definition, a typology is a set
of principles which are not
site-specific. Hence, the type
can be universally applied,
even outside the city where it
originated.
The resulting “typological
toolbox” is the departure
point for the master class:
it simultaneously sets an
architectural language, a
working method and a statement
from which to depart.
By selecting one or more
typologies, by transposing
their defining principles, and
by composing these into a
new architectural constellation,
the students used the building
types from the database as
the building stones for their
proposals.
Therefore the question
that is researched through the
‘Typological Transfer’ method
can be summarized as such: how
can a successful typology in,
for example, New York, produce
similar qualities in the Brussels’
urban fabric? Essentially, the
method proposes a cultural
transfer, in which new situations
are explored by the encounter
and integration of a foreign
element. Things that have no a
priori relation are juxtaposed.
This confrontation produces
unexpected tensions that need
to be mediated, and show
potentials that can be further
explored. This corresponds very
directly to the method of collage.