JOHN BALDESSARI: PARABLES, FABLES, AND OTHER TALL TALES

OFFICE made the exhibition design for the major retrospective on John Baldessari at BOZAR in Brussels. The exhibition, curated by Rita McBride, Bartomeu Mari, and David Platzker, focuses on Baldessari’s work from the 1980s to the 2000s. It reveals the continued international relevance of his practice, including to generations born in the digital age. OFFICE’s exhibition design is a subtle background to the dense collection of images and words, while each corner room of the enfilade disrupts the sequence with an explosion of visual humour by the master himself. The exhibition is open to the public from 19 September 2025 to 1 February 2026. For more info and related events please check here.

OFFICE 334 & 345: OFFICE BUILDINGS MONTOYER & COMMERCE COMPLETED

Renovation of two office buildings in the European Quarter in Brussels is now completed. In both cases, the structure of the existing buildings was reused, and underwent major interventions to optimise the use of space and comply with new sustainability and technical standards of contemporary office space. The larger building of the two, on Montoyer street, now has a recognisable new facade that integrates ventilation ducts, and allows larger window openings, and overall improvement of the spatial quality of the office floors. A double-height foyer creates a transparent and porous ground floor and emphasises the building’s main entrance. The smaller building on Commerce street, is adjacent to an earlier OFFICE project, the Belliard office building, and makes an elegant addition to the streetscape. In collaboration with LD2 and Alides.

THE MODERN PROJECT
STUDIO AT MENDRISIO

The sixth year of the studio led by prof. Kersten Geers at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio is just about to start. Under the banner of the Modern Project, the students will embark on a set of studios that will investigate the failed promised of modernism, and propose to resuscitate its emancipatory agenda through a reinvented formal vocabulary. Can the modern be light again? 

OFFICE 224: HOUSING COMPLEX (VETTENBURG) COMPLETED

The construction of the Housing Complex (Vettenburg) in Ghent is now completed, and the first inhabitants already moved in. This project is a transformation of a former industrial building, situated on a deep and narrow plot along the Scheldt river. The existing building was partially renovated, with new volumes added to accommodate individual housing units. Each housing unit has a courtyard access, with a meandering passage in-between, and a landscape that offers privacy, yet connection through a unified garden. The complex comprises a storefront, an atelier, and a two-story apartment along the street, as well as a studio apartment and two single-family houses in the back. The existing brick perimeter wall is preserved to define the base, with plastered volumes above. 

Eight years after the publication of OFFICE Vols. 1, 2, 3, we are happy to announce the upcoming new sequel: Volumes 4, 5, and 6. The exhibition Four Five Six, made in collaboration with A83, focuses on the expanded content of the books. Instead of showcasing OFFICE work, Four Five Six suggests oblique interpretations, and offers glimpses into references, preoccupations, and everything that makes our world. The exhibition features works by Rita McBride, Bas Princen, Giovanna Silva and Stefano Graziani. Four Five Six will be open to the public from 25 September to 23 November at A83 in New York. A book launch event will be held before the exhibition closes, on 21 November. Limited print editions produced on the occasion of the exhibition will be available soon through www.a83.site/four-five-six and www.officewithoutoffice.com

Office Without Office online bookstore is finally open!

This is where some of our current and out of print Everything Without Content editions will be available for purchase. We will keep on updating the archive collection so make sure to check back frequently. We ship worldwide. 

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OFFICE 375: RASTERS
DESIGN WEEK COPENHAGEN 2025

OFFICE will launch Rasters, a modular series of cabinets and paravents designed in collaboration with Muller Van Severen and produced by BD Barcelona, during 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen. Rasters will be part of a new design exhibition other circle held at The Lab. The exhibition will be open to visitors from the 18th to the 20th of June 2025. Free entry upon registration at othercircle.com. Rasters will be available for purchase by the end of the year through BD Barcelona.  

Kersten Geers will give a lecture on recent OFFICE work at the Architekturforum in Biel, Switzerland. You can find more info on the event here.

The latest book under the banner of Everything Without Content is out now. It takes Charleroi, Belgium as a case study for the contemporary city: the Large City. Without nostalgia for its industrial ruins, nor contempt for modernity, the city was the subject of a year-long studio led by Kersten Geers at the Academy of Architecture USI in Mendrisio. As a form of “applied theory”, the book features students’ projects—an imaginary city—coupled with real projects: Megafactory by OFFICE and Palais des Expositions by Architecten Jan de Vylder Inge Vinck & AgwA. The book features photographs by Stefano Graziani.

OFFICE is part of the Cities exhibition curated by Nina Bassoli at the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition which opens on May 13th. We will showcase The Large City, which takes Charleroi, Belgium as a case study for the contemporary city. Charleroi was the site of a year-long teaching studio at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, and the exhibition will feature students’ work, as well as photography by Stefano Graziani. For this occasion, we will also launch the latest Everything without Content publication: The Large City. 

You can find more information on the Triennale Milano International Exhibition here.

25 Columns is one of four nominees for the Kasper Salin Prize, awarded annually by Architects Sweden to a Swedish building or group of buildings of high architectural quality. The winner will be announced at the Architecture Gala on April 3 at the Filadelfia Convention Center in Stockholm.

OFFICE together with Krupinski/Krupinska, in collaboration with artist Akane Moriyama won the first prize in a competition for a new transport hub in Malmö. The competition called for a new flexible and sustainable multi-story car park that combines several public functions, and which can easily be converted for another use or adapted to new types of mobility. A simple box with a skin of recycled bricks meets high sustainability standards, while making an urban figure with a unique character.     

EXPOSING THE WORLD

This book focuses solely on the Shonandai cultural centre, the first major public project of Itsuko Hasegawa. The latest Everything without Content publication is the unlikely successor to the previous books we made on the works of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck and Giancarlo de Carlo (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, 2023). Shonandai belongs to a different time —the 1980s— and a different place —Japan— but it shares the desire of the earlier generations to ‘overcome’ modernism. Hasegawa achieves this in the most outlandish way, possible perhaps only in Japan in the 1980s. Shonandai is where the 1960s techno-avant-garde comes full circle. The book features photographs by Stefano Graziani.

OFFICE 349: ATELIER VAN DE VELDE
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The construction of Atelier Van de Velde is progressing steadily with the concrete silhouette of the building taking shape within the landscape. The building, located in a flood-prone area in the outskirts of Leuven, is designed as a simple concrete box that features round perforations in its lower façade to allow controlled flooding of a crawlspace below the raised ground floor. Hanging from the longer edges of the flat roof are two aluminium canopies which provide a sense of privacy and covered outdoor space. The atelier has two levels, a workspace below and a residential area above, each independently accessible by retractable outdoor aluminium stairs that stand in stark contrast to the immobile, monolithic concrete volume. The building is scheduled to be completed in spring 2025.

OFFICE 334: OFFICE BUILDING
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

In Brussels, at the corner of Rue de la Science and Rue Montoyer, a major renovation of an office building is well underway, as the façade elements are assembled and put in place. The project reuses, transforms and optimizes the existing building by freeing the floor height from techniques, and by integrating ventilation ducts within the new façade. The new façade grid creates a distinct and recognisable identity, while allowing larger window openings, and overall improvement of the spatial quality of the office floors. A double-height foyer creates a transparent and porous ground floor and emphasises the building’s main entrance. As the work on the courtyard and interior partitions begins, the project remains on track for completion in spring 2025.

Bas Princen and Kersten Geers in dialogue

A conversation between Bas Princen and Kersten Geers on their collaborative practices is the first session of the new cycle of lectures organised by ARQUIN-FAD Barcelona. This event will take place on Monday December 2nd at 6.30PM at La Virreina Lab in Barcelona. You can find more info on the event here.