Marc Goodwin is a photographer specialised in architecture. We were asked to participate in his project about architecture offices around the globe and of course said yes! Our office space is featured in 3 online articles in Dezeen, ArchDaily, Designboom together with other inspiring Belgian architecture offices. We’re proud to be presented together with such great company! Our quote in ArchDaily sums up how we feel about our work environment that we’ve now fully settled into after our move last year:
“A good office space combines aesthetics and function to create a space that you can sit and move within with calm and ease, while also enabling healthy social interactions. What we love about our office is the spaciousness, light, the penthouse views of the city from several perspectives, and our plants that add life and warmth to the raw and exposed surfaces. We prepare meals together every day, and our open office space lets us sit and work together, while we can also retreat to smaller meeting spaces for more peace and privacy.”
Thanks to Marc for capturing our everyday with such detail and care!
Almost every year we go on a trip abroad together with the whole office and this time the trip went to Basel, which is well-known for its contemporary architecture. We focused on cooperative living and repurposing of existing buildings, receiving guided tours of the Cooperative Building Stadterle by Buchner Bründler, Weinlager by Esch Sintzel Architekten and COLMI by Rahbaran Hürzeler Architects – all three equally impressive in terms of their level of detail and innovation. Basel is a real international hub for architecture, and we experienced an incredibly welcoming community of architects who made our trip so worthwhile and memorable. We were truly charmed by this relatively small city that has so much to offer. Photos from our trip can be seen in the travel highlights of our Instagram page.
Yesterday we had a little team day visit to the newly completed leisure centre and adjacent park in Zellik! Very nice to see this place come alive and become a bustling hotspot in the town! Read more about the project here.
Together with:
Areal Architecten
Atelier Ruimtelijk Advies
BAM Interbuild bv
Gemeente Asse
D2S
Studie10 ingenieursbureau bvba
We’re thrilled to announce that we just moved into our new office on Madou square in the Brussels neighbourhood of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode. We’ve gained ample space and light with our 10th floor penthouse that has stunning panoramic views of Brussels from two sides. We look forward to a new and exciting chapter for Brut!
We had an amazing turnout for our community engagement event in Achterbos Mol! People were interested, respectful, listened to each other, discussed, worked hard and enjoyed this social event. We received a lot of useful input to continue our work on the masterplan for the town centre in the meantime!
Together with Gemeente Mol, Spatie maakt ruimte, Atelier Romain
Community engagement around the future of the Ravenstein neighborhood Tervuren! We were thrilled to finally be able to communicate our ideas and were happy to see they were well understood. Events like this help us keep our feet on the ground and focus on the core of our assignment: strategic densification with new housing for target groups while improving the liveability of the neighborhood as a whole.
Gemeente Tervuren Spatie maakt ruimte, Leidsman, Driekwart Groen
Today, the works on the Schuman Square were officially started with a groundbreaking ceremony in the presence of Karine Lalieux, Federal Minister of Beliris; Elke Van de Brandt, Brussels Minister of Mobility; Ans Persoons, Brussels State Secretary of Urbanism; Alain Hutchinson, Brussels Commissioner for Europe and Ilze Juhansone, Secretary-General of the European Commission. We were also present together with our Danish colleagues from COBE to present the project to the press. We’re looking forward to a smooth construction process and even more to the final result!
This year our office trip abroad brought us to London – a city overflowing with inspiration and energy. We visited the regenerated areas of Kings Cross and the Olympic Park, as well as the classic and mandatory Barbican Centre. What made this year’s trip truly unique was the fact that we had local contacts that offered us guided tours, giving us very personal and in-depth experiences of several project sites. Spparc Studio gave us a tour of the prize-winning Borough Yards by London Bridge, while our friend Adam at Barnet Council showed us around redevelopments in the north London neighbourhoods of Collindale and Brent Cross. All this while sampling delicious food from cultures across the globe! We will surely visit again!
This year we celebrated our yearly summer party together with our friends from Areal. After many years of successful collaboration it was more than time to mark our friendship with a happy get-together. Areal organized a unique location on the rooftop of Pakt in the ‘Groen Kwartier’ area of Antwerp. We want to thank them for an evening of catching up, sharing ideas, and reflecting on the amazing projects we’ve worked on together over the years. Here’s to many more years of partnership!
Our proposals for the Don Bosco neighborhood in Halle have been included in a new publication on ‘Leefbuurten’ by E. Aerts en J.Mabilde, who work for the Flemish Government Architect. ‘Leefbuurt’ – translated literally as ‘living neighborhood’ – is a neighborhood that is designed from the perspective of walking, cycling, health and social interaction. It is a neighborhood that invites people to meet and offers space for recreation, green and water. The project is meant to guide cities and towns that have the ambition to increase the quality of neighborhoods through the refurbishment of public space. Seven cities and towns were selected and BRUT is responsible for the project in Halle.
We recently marked a significant milestone as we celebrated 15 years of Brut! We threw an unforgettable birthday bash that brought together friends, collaborators, and the entire Brut team. Held in Au Bassin with performances by Joy Wellboy and DJ Nixie, a buffet of Syrian cuisine by We Exist that delighted everyone’s taste buds, the atmosphere was electric. The most heartwarming part of the evening was having so many familiar faces – friends who have been part of our journey and collaborators who have contributed to our success – all gathered in one place. Maybe we should make this into a yearly celebration?
Here’s to many more years of innovation, collaboration, and shared success. Thank you to everyone who joined us in making this celebration truly amazing!
BRUT was invited by the order of architects in Genova to talk about their projects within the framework of the Rubens year happing in the city. The idea was to start up a dialogue between the architecture of Italy and Flanders. The decor was one of the palazzi that inspired Rubens on his stay in the city. Very interesting experience! Thanks again for the invitation Architetti Genova!
You can read more about this initiative here.
We’re excited to share that Small Zennepark emerged as the winner in the Urban Design category at the annual Arc Awards, presented by the magazine ‘De Architect.’ Our project, ‘Het Kleine Zennepark,’ created in collaboration with OKRA, stood out in Brussels for its innovative approach to revitalizing an urban district.
The design takes a surgical approach, bringing a breath of fresh air and open space to a tightly built-up area. The focus on social cohesion is evident through various gathering spots, including schools and cultural centers, that promote a sense of community.
We extend our gratitude to ‘De Architect’ and the Arc Awards for acknowledging the efforts behind ‘Het Kleine Zennepark.’ This achievement motivates us to keep pushing the boundaries in our pursuit of exceptional urban transformations.
Each year, we embark on an office trip aimed at both inspiration and team building. This time we went to Nantes. The city’s unique blend of historical beauty and contemporary development made this into a great trip. Nantes has a rich recent history of well-coordinated urban development, specifically on the île de Nantes. But there is so much more. We particularly enjoyed Le Lieu Unique, La Maison Radieuse, our boat trip to Little Atlantique and la caserne Mellinet with the beautiful school by RAUM architectes who kindly invited us to their office. Highly recommended!
To finish off before the holidays we made an overview of all the projects we have worked on during the last year, from mid 2021 to mid 2022. This added up to no less than 42 projects, alsmost 1 project for every working week of the year. Thanks to our amazing team and our clients for making this possible. Have a nice summer everybody!
This week the women of BRUT are taking over the Instagram account of @womeninarchitecturebelgium. We invite everyone to check it out and join the conversation!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CfBvjg4ja7X/
We’ve been around for a while now, 15 years to be precise, and we felt it was time for a change! We’ve built up a portfolio of exciting and challenging projects together with our talented, engaged and creative team that has also grown steadily. As we continue to evolve as a company our values and commitment to our work and areas of expertise remain the same – bringing sustainable, resourceful and integrated solutions to the built environment around us.
A big thank you to Leuven-based design agency Kpot, who were an absolute delight to work with.
Mol is a fast growing municipality and a lot of urban development initiatives will be taking place in the coming years. The municipality felt the need to attract a team to guarantee a good coordination between the different developments and to ensure they all contribute to the realization of a shared ambition. The team led by BRUT, with Spatie maakt ruimte as planning expert, Atelier Romain as landscape architect and Suunta as mobility expert, was selected to do this. We are looking forward to getting to know this beautiful municipality and its inhabitants better in the coming years.
The structural works on the new police station are in full swing. The design is shaped by the rich context of the building with a beautiful rural landscape with a lake on one side and the large scale buildings along the national road N60 on the other. The building will become a landmark in the landscape.
Team: BRUT, STYFHALS architecten, Land, IBO – Integer Bouwen and Investpro
Landmark in the Landscape
Now that the public part of the project, with the library, the administrative centre, the sports hall and the schools, is put into use, the new town centre is slowly coming to life. The residential buildings have also already advanced quite a bit and the refurbishment of the green public spaces and parks will eventually be the cherry on the cake. To be continued…
Team: BRUT, Areal Architecten, a2d, Ontwerpbureau Pauwels, Van Roey Vastgoed
The Village Gardens