Education

Capstone Project: Environment & Interior Design |  Neo-Morphologies

Year 4, BA(Hons) EID, School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - 2017

Unit Master: Dr.ir. G Bruyns

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Neo-Morphologies investigates the influences of morphologies, or its tools for spatial analysis, and nomenclatures to approach design. The studio does not delimit is investigation to contemporary practices alone, allowing for a total reclassification of both historic and contemporary typologies, spaces and functional uses.

Capstone Project: Environment & Interior Design |  Made In Hong Kong II - Production Communities

Year 4, BA(Hons) EID, School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - 2016

Unit Master: Dr.ir. G Bruyns

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Production Communities investigates the various industries that have used the Hong Kong locale as their production centres. The design-research enquiry looked at all forms of industry before selecting one specific production types to further question design options at a number of scales.

Studio V |  City-Interior as MORPH

Year 3, BA(Hons) EID, School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - 2018

Unit Master: Dr.ir. G Bruyns

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“From Greek morphē - ‘form’. As verb, change smoothly from one image to another by small gradual steps undergo or cause to undergo a gradual process of transformation. "Morph." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 12 Jan, 2018. The ‘MORPH’ unit will focus on how spaces and typologies / objects / spaces / patterns ofchange, transform or ‘MORPH’. The unit will directly link historical precedents with contemporary design challenges. In this light, moving beyond mere transformation, or the so-called morphing of each type, the challenge will be to ask what typologies / objects / spaces / patternsexist. How do we classify spaces and can we define clear typological / objects / spaces / patterns transformations in their use and spatial functions? The unit further asks; how does design manipulate transformations, the degrees and orders of change? That is to say, how spaces change in increments and how design responds to each degreeof difference.  

Studio V | Urban Pattern as City-Interior.

Year 3, BA(Hons) EID, School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - 2017

Unit Master: Dr.ir. G Bruyns

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Ornamentation, form and patterns. How can the understanding of patterns facilitate design capabilities in cities of the 21st Century? The question of pattern and its impact on design is not new. Since the dawn of time, patterns have played an important role in visual culture. They have, on the one hand, helped inspire design directions, whilst on the other, led to designed products [spatial, environmental, product and social] at a number of scales. The focus of this unit will examine how to harness the theme of ‘patterns’ as design medium within the context of Hong Kong. Moreover, the unit will look at the various foundational principles of ‘design’ versus the concept of ‘patterns’ and the possibility of producing a Hong Kong-based ‘pattern language’. A historic overview and principles are to be explored, before an in-depth contextual and material analysis will be made. Thereafter the question of spatial synthesis would be deemed an essential part of the skill development and final product. 

Systems and Strategies - Hong Kong ex |Masters of Urban Design

School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - 2018

Unit Masters: Prof P Hasdell & Dr.ir. G Bruyns

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The MDES studio will formulate strategies at the regional scale of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HK SAR) for the HK2Studio. This speculatively proposes a doubling of HK population and asks participants to engage in the ways the development of Hong Kong could adapt to these challenges. Specific attention is focused on the way design becomes instrumental in materialising spatial strategies at the territorial scale. It requires the exploration of urban development, morphology, spatial planning and spatial organisation within a three step and three scale approach [a] conceptual formulation, [b] scenario projection and [c] design implementation. 

Systems and Strategies Studio | Masters of Urban Design

School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - 2017

Unit Masters: Prof P Hasdell & Dr.ir. G Bruyns

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The work aimed to address the question of urban systems as intensive heterotopic conditions that create multiple edges, spaces and convergences in relation to Hong Kong’s urbanisms. As such it sought to bring together a range of perspectives to highlight both complexity and contradictions which shape the spatial limits of a dynamic landscape in terms of; typologies of exteriorization, emergent forms of spatial production and industry, lifestyles, interior flaneuring, the transformation of the public to the private and forms of civic commercial hybridity, elaborated in a speculative tactical investigation and conceptualization into urban systems and emergent strategies of adaptation

MDES Capstone Project | Masters of Urban Design Graduation Studio

School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - 2017

Unit Masters: Prof P Hasdell & Dr.ir. G Bruyns

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The Capstone Project is the final design project based on individually-defined brief, program and concept. The Capstone Research Project (individual research and investigations and design positioning) marks a starting point for the Capstone Project. The Capstone Project is organized into four related parts. Note that capstone projects do not have to be site driven, they can also be focused around exploration of a particular issue or ‘thesis’. 

INTERNATIONAL Studios - 2018

Host: School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University &

Interior & Spatial Design, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, The University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Unit Masters: Dr.ir. G Bruyns (Coordinator), G Valiente, P Hasdell, D Elkin, M Lam.

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The 2018 International Studio elaborated on the square-foot-society (Bruyns, 2017) as spatial and social concept. In essence, the square-foot-society concept articulates both domestic usage within Hong Kong’s neoliberal landscape whilst posing larger questions related to the standardization of all forms of ‘lived’ space. First, based on the understanding of how people tactically shape their ‘lived’ space, the ‘ft2’ concept represents domestic lifestyles, spatial engagement, human endeavour, religious practices, forms of public redress and cultural beliefs. As second aim the concept critiques speculative ‘models’ which define indexes of spatial use, policy register, gradations of living types and legality that leads to social compression

INTERNATIONAL Studios

Host: School of Design - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University &

Interior & Spatial Design, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, The University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Unit Master: Dr.ir. G Bruyns (Coordinator), T Cole, P Hasdell, D Elkin, V Lee Ching.

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The Model and the Lived, beyond the 60m2 mean. An investigation into Hong Kong’s Domestic Models. What insights can a spatial interrogation of Hong Kong’s domestic models and its transformative variants deliver in terms of a territory’s processes of compressed domesticity and possible future design prospects? Furthermore, how would the understanding of these models not only question,but, concomitantly reflect the ideologies of a ‘square foot society’ in comparison to other domestic models globally to develop relevant future domestic models?

INTERNATIONAL Studios | Masters

BOGex– radicalizing the instrument of design strategies [Bogotá]

Workshop: Universidad Nacional de Colombia | School of Design – The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - June 2017

Studio Masters: Dr.ir G Bruyns, dr.ir. C Pinilla

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The BOGex unit builds upon previous work questioning territorial development, as instances of extreme. Originally the goal was to evaluate the role of Rio BOGOTA, or the Bogota River for the city of Bogota, Colombia. What is the river’s current contribution to the city, it spatial characteristics and most importantly why has little development promoted urban development beyond the river itself? Following the endogenous approach, the BOGex Master's unit, posed one question; how and in what manner should a territory respond to the doubling of its population?Moreover, how would the doubling of Bogota’s inhabitants with an additional 8 million impact the territory at large; spatially and socially?  What type of new settlements would be needed, what densities would be required, and in what types of infrastructure would be necessitated to make such adjustments? 

Amsterdam I | Masters of Science Graduation Studio

Delft School of Design – TU Delft - 2011 - 2012.

Studio Master: Dr.ir. G Bruyns

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Abstract.

As one of the Urban Asymmetries (UA) studios, this studio developed a speculative critique of Amsterdam’s modes of development. Combining both PhD research and Masters Design work, the various projects and incentives radicalised Amsterdam’s urban future.

Jerusalem Studio - Damascus Gate | Masters of Architecture Graduation Studio

Delft School of Design – TU Delft | Graduate School of Architecture of Anhalt University [DAAD] - 2012

Studio Masters: Prof AD. Graafland, Dr.ir G Bruyns. 

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Abstract.

During the Winter Semester 2010 Students of DIA at Anhalt University were introduced to the politically complex situation in and around Jerusalem. Roads are not simply roads, new urban territories are not simply new urban developments more and more often situated in the West Bank, in other words everything in and around Jerusalem is ‘political’. Students worked in subgroups, the workload was considerable. IN a few weeks they needed to be informed about the major issues in the conflict which had a direct urban impact. They were informed about both sides of this conflict; the situation is too complex to explain by simple dichotomies. 

In the 5 major phases of working, the first phase looked at road systems in an around Jerusalem, the new settlements and the green areas; the water supply for Jerusalem and the Palestinians, the major economic zones and the distribution of the workplaces and commuting Palestinians, and the surveillance systems, in particular at Allenby Bridge. 

The studio concluded with a full urban analysis atlas and 10 urban and architectural design proposals all captured in the publication entitled: Jerusalem, The Damascus Gate. 

Amsterdam I | Amsterdam II | Masters of Architecture Graduation Studio

Delft School of Design – TU Delft | Graduate School of Architecture of Anhalt University [DAAD] - 2010 - 2012

Studio Masters: Prof AD. Graafland, Dr. H. Sohn, Dr.ir G Bruyns. 

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Abstract.

As one of 2 consecutive studios on Amsterdam, by the Dessau international School [DIA] part of the Graduate School of Architecture of Anhalt University, the focus of the Amsterdam 1 Studio was on critical reflections based on housing for Amsterdam’s waterfront. 

The studio methodology was developed at the Architecture Faculty of TU Delft, in the Delft School of Design (DSD), called Urban Asymmetries (UA). The DIA project commenced with the traditional tools ascribed to reading city structure before inverting the traditional narrative to include other ‘variables’ (economy, social structure, labour forces and global markets) as part of a revised explanation what city form is as well as the intricacies of its internal relations. The studio focused on the historical development of the city of Amsterdam, and in particular the northern part which has been an industrial area and garden city for a long time.

Santiago de Chile | Masters of Science Graduation Studio

Delft School of Design – TU Delft, 2008 -2009.

Studio Masters: G Bruyns & Dr.ir. H. Sohn.

The main problematic of the study area -the neighborhood of La Victoria in Santiago de Chile- in spite of its many positive characteristics- is facing social-spatial segregation and fragmentation. Instead of proposing an urban design intervention project for the area a series of alternative strategic planning instruments are proposed that have been specifically designed for the urban situation of La Victoria and its immediate surroundings, that are to be implemented on the decision-making levels of urban and spatial policy.

Hong Kong | Masters of Science Graduation Studio

Delft School of Design – TU Delft - 2011 - 2012.

Studio Masters: G Bruyns & Dr.ir. G Bracken

Focussing on one of the Asian Tigers, The Hong Kong Urban Asymmetries studio, examines the approaches to rapid urbanisation and the counterpositions possible through urban architecture. The studio questioned the various avenues available within the spatial limits of a compressed society and economicaly driven territory.

The Why Factory | Urbanism and Architecture MSc 2 and Graduation Studios (Master Mentor)

Delft School of Design – TU Delft - 2010 - 2013.

Studio Masters: Prof Winy Maas, Ulf Hackauf & Pirjo Haikola.

Additional Masters Mentor to a number of MSc 2 and Graduation studios, focussed on the themes of [1] Robotic City, [2] Green Dreams, [3] Transformer Studio & [4] Food City.