Shortcuts, overcuts, crosscuts & offcuts

The floorplan shows architecture in a state of timelessness, free of ornamentation. In essence, a ground plan is nothing more than a collection of black lines on a white sheet of paper. From the first known ground plan, engraved in a rock in Mesopotamia around 9000 BC, to the digital plans as we know them today; in each case, they are composed of simple lines. This workshop floats on the observation that buildings, regardless of age, context or location, can be perfectly compared to each other on the basis of a plan.

A set of black-and-white copies of an existing floor plan are provided at the beginning of the workshop. Each student is assigned a unique project. This is the basic material on which a series of simple, nimble operations are carried out. Like cutting and pasting, they are taken apart in fragments before being reassembled. The rooms, walls, openings, columns, ... from the original building are enlarged, affected and duplicated into a new reality.

Workshop, 2024
in collaboration with 1st bachelor students at Department of Architecture and Urban planning, Ghent University