Architecture Competition Legendary Bird Home 1st prize winners - GHENT UNIVERSITY

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the 1st prize winners of our “Legendary Bird Home” competition - Fabian De Vriendt, 
Arnout Stevens
 and Mathias Spiessens from Belgium!

1st prize winners from Belgium

We are three architectural engineering students at the university of Ghent, currently finishing our Master’s in architectural design and construction techniques. Still we tend to focus on different aspects in a design. In our view this leads to a better holistic approach towards architecture.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where company/ individuals have been involved?

Considering our academic background, our projects have focussed on large scale architecture with a lot of attention to technical detailing. Two of the team members took part in the international student competition, ‘Solar decathlon 2019’ and won the engineering prize with the design proposal of the ‘Mobble’ (sustainable and modular building component).

This particular competition gave the opportunity to transpose our attention to detail onto a small scale product design. The other member focuses more on the importance of small scale in architecture. He tries to connect architecture and art in his vision of a project.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

An architect must write poetry in space. But first of all, he or she has to question whether anything should be written at all. We believe that architecture is more than building and a lot more than building buildings. In shaping the environment you have to think global while acting local. Locally, architecture should pursue a human-centred value and psychological well-being without neglecting the specific cultural and social background.

Globally, architecture questions the spatial organisation of human kind. This requires an adequate vision on topics such as climate change, urban planning, sustainability, circularity, and life cycle analysis. This also entails non-building as a design attitude that considers space as a finite resource.

Fabian De Vriendt, 
Arnout Stevens
 and Mathias Spiessens from Belgium

Why do you participate in architecture vision competitions?

Vision competitions seek out non-traditional solutions. It allows the creative process to thrive and to stimulate the imagination. Besides this freedom, it is a good opportunity to take up new challenges with different people. Learning from their way of thinking allows the sharpening your own vision. And most of all, it’s fun!

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture vision competitions?

“Do it! Just do it, don’t let your dreams be dreams, yesterday you said tomorrow, make your dreams come true!” - Shia LaBeouf