Valentin Bollaert and Pauline Fockedey met whilst studying at the Institut supérieur d’architecture Saint-Luc in Tournai. Four years ago, they founded Nord, initially to enter a competition, and have since regarded their collaboration as an opportunity to experiment.

Both teach, but adopt different, complementary approaches to teaching. Bollaert is fascinated by form and structure in architecture, whilst Fockedey – who is completing a PhD on the relationship between politics and architectural education in Belgium between the 1960s and 1990s – is more interested in research.