What is the detail/non-detail when it grows out of a culture of genuine and authentic sustainability? Beyond ‘green’ building, meeting this century’s climate challenges calls for a deeper engagement, equally restoring the loss of community, care and contact with nature. With that goal in mind, Caroline Voet invited BC architects and materials to develop the biobased Parcum tile for the baroque museum and active farm of Park Abbey in Leuven. The thinking on details was developed in a hybrid process between Voet as both a writer and a designer/maker. Conversations with Wes Degreef and Bernard Van Damme of Brussels-based BC architects and London-based architect Takeshi Hayatsu helped to shape further insights.

The Parcum tile is meant as the essential haptic welcome, made from soil drawn from around the abbey, and together with the abbey’s visitors in participative workshops. This handmade gesture invites awareness and touching. Starting from scarcity, the interiors are made of (re)assembled pieces of local wood from the Forests of Brabant or from recycled panels from the Oogsthal of craft contractor Gielissen.