The work of the architects and urban planners at Baumans-Deffet is deeply rooted in the city of Liège. “This image illustrates our day-to-day working environment. The conviction that research at the territorial, urban, landscape and architectural levels must not be viewed in isolation from one another forms the basis of our practice. We focus on the city of the everyday, the ordinary, the ‘already existing’, which we regard as social, economic and cultural capital subject to transformation, intensification, repurposing or preservation.”

Baumans-Deffet starts from the idea that the city is built on a shared imagination rooted in production, growth and progress. According to them, the challenge of our time lies in evolving towards a new kind of imagination, one that questions not only the way we deal with vulnerable (natural) areas, the climate and the social dimension of building, but also the way we move through the city.