CONTEMPORARY
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Photo: OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
Proposal by
OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
Grand Finalist, PHI Contemporary International Architecture Competition
→ See their Strategic Proposal for Stage 1
→ See their Architectural Proposal for Stage 2
→ See their Completed Proposal for Stage 3
Watch their video presentation
Watch their video presentation
"The PHI Contemporary project is rooted in a deep historical and urban analysis of Old Montreal's fabric. While confronting its proximate context, the project relates to PHI's cultural and architectural lineage. The new PHI Contemporary premises will complete a public constellation of buildings, mutually accessible and strongly interconnected in typology, expression, and content. The new PHI Contemporary will thus become a natural continuation of this legacy in the making, giving new meanings to the Bonsecours site and to the presence of PHI in the city."
—OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, an excerpt from their Proposal for PHI Contemporary
ABOUT THE FIRM
Based in Brussels, Belgium
OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen was founded in 2002 by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. OFFICE is renowned for its idiosyncratic architecture, in which realisations and theoretical projects stand side by side. The projects are direct, spatial and firmly rooted in architectural theory. The firm reduces architecture to its very essence and most original form: a limited set of basic geometric rules is used to create a framework within which life unfolds out in all its complexity. Since its establishment OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen has earned a reputation as one of Belgium’s most successful and renowned practices, and one of the world’s truly original voices in present-day architecture. OFFICE engages in all architectural and urbanist design, creating projects of all scales ranging from furniture to masterplanning in Belgium as well as internationally. This practice is combined with academic research and teaching. These two aspects of OFFICE’s work are explicitly each other’s mirror, creating unexpected parallels between academic and practical work. Since 2018, OFFICE is a partnership led by Kersten Geers, David Van Severen and Jan Lenaerts, together with associates Justine Rossillion and Alexander Smedts.