After eleven inspiring years working together, Jasper Ponjee is leaving our office and partnership. It is with pain in our hearts that we farewell our fantastic colleague and loyal friend. Jasper began working with BULK in 2011. As project architect, he was responsible for award-winning projects like the Conforta daycare & houses in Deurne and the multi-purpose Uytenhove building in Lochristi. He was also inspirer and driving-force behind countless competitions and studies. With his down-to-earth but poetic way of looking at things, his training as structural engineer, and as a rabid architecture fanatic he has made an indelible mark on our work and inspired many colleagues and clients. Based on that appreciation, he became a junior partner in 2018.

Jasper was the driving force and instigator of the Bouwmeester Label -CONSTRUCT- that we as office received in 2019. We explored how a renewed focus on structure and oversizing can contribute to a resilient, robust city. The exhibition ‘BWMSTR Label Construct, ruimte voor verandering’ in the Singel displayed the result of this research and presented tools for a changing practice.

As of 1 September 2022, Jasper leaves our office to consider new challenges.Jasper will focus more specifically on design & research around architecture and climate. We can only be grateful for and proud of the fine years together and we’re going to miss him. We wish Jasper every success on his new path and will continue to work closely with him, albeit under a different star.

For all questions relating to his projects or any follow-up, please contact us via info@bulkarchitecten.be. We will then make sure that your query reaches the right person.

Our offices are closed from 8 to 31 July for joint leave.
Happy holidays!

photo Uyttenhove Lochristi, © Nick Claeskens

On Wednesday 29 June 19.30 researchers Willemijn Wilms Floet and Koen Van Bockstal are guests in the series 'Gewoon Goed wonen en werken’ (Just Living and Working) organized by Keilecollectief with the introduction of Ninke Happel (HCVA). Koen Van Bockstal explains recent own work on the basis of a number of spearheads and fascinations. Willemijn Wilms Floet explains in this lecture living within the building block as a contemporary design issue.

29 juni 2022, 19.30h - Keilepand, M4H, Keilestraat 7-9, 3029 BP Rotterdam

VIBE, together with Bond Beter Leefmilieu, KU Leuven and the VRP, published the book 'Stedenbouw kan ook zo' (Urban planning, an other way). The book of examples offers concrete solutions for our cities and villages and illustrates these on the basis of positive projects in which the health and well-being of people and nature take precedence. Midden Boechout has been included as an inspiring example of future-proof urban design and spatial planning.

You have to hope that relevant and/or useful books are widely read and, above all, confessed. You have to fear that 'Room for change' will not know this happiness and that it will not be due to the book itself, on the contrary. It is due to the clear message, which makes you insecure and sounds confrontational.

Review of the book 'Ruimte voor verandering. Robuuste open gebouwen voor de toekomst' by Filip Canfyn bij Architectura.

At the request of team Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven architects, Koen Van Bockstal will give a lecture to students of the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft on Wednesday 18/05/22. The lecture is the start of the ON4 studio course 'Residential Building and Living Environment', which focuses on the question of how families can live stacked in the Cadix district.

BULK and Sergison Bates are very happy to announce that we have won the competition for the new SD Worx headquarter building in Antwerp.

In collaboration with IRS Studiebureau - Buro Lubbers - DENKBAR.

For the launch of the book Ruimte voor verandering. Robuuste open gebouwen voor de toekomst, the Flanders Architecture Institute and the University of Antwerp invited Stephen Bates (Sergison Bates architects) and Koen Van Bockstal (Bulk architects / University of Antwerp) for a double lecture.

In many port cities around the world, port-related activity is shifting away from traditional locations to more productive areas. The vacated port areas are slowly being transformed into fully-fledged parts of the city. The March issue of the Architect shows how to turn the harbor into a city without polishing away the past.

'Lovingly designed robust urban architecture'

Project Cadix A5 in collaboration with Sergison Bates and Bovenbouw is featured in de Architect ‘From harbor to city’.

Article in Nook magazine 2022 / #1: Cross-pollination, the power of collaboration about the production of BRAEMPRAAT. Filip Dujardin, Dimitri Leue and Koen Van Bockstal talk about the collaboration on this piece where Dimitri Leue brought Braems text ‘Het lelijkste land ter wereld’ (‘The ugliest country in the world’) together with music by Steven Taelman, photos by Filip Dujardin and a set by BULK architects.