WITH 90+ CATEGORIES AND 300+ JURORS, THE ARCHITIZER A+AWARDS IS THE WORLD’S DEFINITIVE ARCHITECTURAL AWARDS PROGRAM. IN THE WEEKS LEADING UP TO THE EXTENDED DEADLINE, JANUARY 30, 2015, WE ARE PUBLISHING Q&AS WITH 2014 A+AWARD WINNERS. TO SEE A FULL LIST OF CATEGORIES AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE A+AWARDS, VISIT AWARDS.ARCHITIZER.COM.
C.T. ARCHITECTS was the 2014 Popular Choice winner and the Jury Award winner in the Architecture+Aging category with Loft MM. This storage-space-turned-micro-loft was created with custom-made furniture and design solutions that subtly comply with Belgian disability codes.
Your name: Nick Ceulemans
Firm: C.T. Architects
Location: Blizen, Belgium
Education: Architectural Association, Architecture and Urban Planning
When did you decide that you wanted to be an architect?
At the age of six. I remember writing a letter to my teacher asking what I should do to become an architect. It must have been the first letter I ever wrote…
What was your first architecture/design job?
Growing up, I always preferred creating and making my own toys instead of playing with them. Being able to mess around in my father’s carpentry workshop, of course, helped. There was always some scrap wood left over that could be turned into my next project.
Who is your design hero and/or what is your favorite building?
I am very inspired by the many ingenious DIY solutions I find in many vernacular Belgian constructions from the 50s and 60s. For me, the way reused materials get turned into anything from door handles to hinges to letterboxes shows much more imagination than the cheap pre-engineered solutions you can find everywhere nowadays.
Tell us something that people might not know about your winning entry:
The project LOFT MM, although it is very small, took three years to complete. We started with the simple question of looking at some paperwork and generally, month after month it became more and more a research project as well as a design project.
Which jurors do you find most compelling and why?
Over the past few years I’ve been lucky enough to meet several of the jurors: Ronan Bouroullec, Yves Behar, Aaron Betsky, Stefano Boeri, James Corner, Paola Antonelli, among many others. It is fair to say I have a deep respect for the intelligent and remarkable work they all do.
Among your fellow A+Award winners, what is/are your favorite(s)?
The Smith Creek Park Project in Clifton Forge. Small things can make big things happen. It would be interesting to see in real life how the project is doing today.
Smith Creek Park by Clifton Forge by design/buildLAB
Outside of architecture, where do you look for inspiration?
Nature. More specifically, I am inspired by the way the landscape has always provided a kind of source code for everything that happens upon it. Cultures were shaped by them and in the past, art and architecture were always deeply connected to the specific conditions found on site. Today, in order to save our planet, we need to consume less. But we are told that to save our economy, we need to consume more. It’s something I haven’t figured out for myself entirely, but it’s quite obvious that our habits have to change a great deal to ensure a healthy future for the planet and for future generations. The issue for architects is that there’s no single formula that works for every project. Once you get into discussions about sustainability, there’s a lot of subjectivity, so you have to be inspired with how you approach each project.
What do you find exciting about architecture and design right now?
Currently, I am refurbishing a 200-year-old farm into our future new house and office. By removing layer after layer and seeing the history of the construction, it is becoming clear to me that only the most recent additions are plastic and totally non-reusable. The return to a more ecological way of building and thinking while revolutionizing new typologies is very exciting at the moment.