This academic year of the International Master consisted of two design studios. The studio took place in the first half of the first semester.

The Gruuthuse Palace was built as a patrician house in the 15th century. It was restored and partly reconstructed as a museum at the end of the 19th century by the architect Louis Delacenserie. He envisaged to restyle Bruges as a ‘medieval’ town according to the Gothic Revival. Today, its heritage has become the source for mass tourism. Looking at the historical centre, its daily life is totally focused on this ‘industry’ of tourists, often day-trippers. In order to attract as many people as possible, the monuments are secu­red in an artificial condition, allowing visitors to walk through and look at a fixed scenography of objects belonging to the past.

In the studio, the students first investigated the concept of manuscript illuminations, translating it in a contemporary tool for presentation. The design assignment focused on the re-integration of the buildings as communal infrastructure in the present with new functions relevant for the city’s inhabitants today. The aim of the studio was to reveal the historical, social and urban potential of the site for the local community.