Text: Willem-Jan van Ekert / Photography: Bram Tack
Professor and alumna Charlotte Nys and her bureau Origin Architecture are renovating the Braemgebouw, formerly Building M. She wants to take this poetic, anti-dogmatic symbol of a heliocentric view of the world and restore it to its former glory. “Changing people through architecture is a wonderful thought,” she says.
“Sometimes you enter a room and you get a good feeling. The fact you feel more positive just by entering a building changes you. How do you achieve that? For me, dualities are important. Open, closed. Near, far. Perspective, line. Light, darkness. Dualities in architecture make it stronger. There are these contrasts in life, too. Learning to deal with them is part of life, and architecture can help. We have thought about what we can bring to this building - and what we’ve brought is peace.”