Brussels architects 1010au, Fallow and Nathanaëlle Baes-Cantillon (formerly Grue) are each seeking a new alliance with urban nature in their own way. In 2022, they were awarded a Bouwmeester Label to promote nature-inclusive design and construction in current and future architectural discourse. They decided to study the site of the De Singel arts campus in Antwerp and investigated how the building, designed by Léon Stynen and Paul De Meyer in the 1970s, relates to the landscape. How is nature conquering its place in and around the building today? And what relationships between artificial and natural life can we expect in the future? A story from the designers.

In our daily architectural practice, we are often confronted with a rather functional and short-sighted approach to nature, which is usually reduced to a backdrop. We ourselves strive to shape the living environment based on the principles of “naturation” (in which nature is given a place as a physical force that produces life) and to consider the built environment as part of a multispecies network. It is a radical way of thinking in which we, as designers, no longer place humans on a pedestal, but approach them as one of the many living organisms that can occupy space.