The research seminar examines historical layered places as well as the ways in which and the reasons why some (architectural) elements and approaches were maintained over time and others abandoned. Hand drawing, next to literature, is used as a primary instrument of discovery during explorations of architecture, interior architecture, urban organizations and topographies. Further referred to as 'places'.

The students were asked to visit, observe and capture a place in Hasselt. The handed places are part of the assignment because of their strong adaptive reuse qualities and layered accretions: the former prison in Hasselt by Noa architects, the beguinage by Bovenbouw and Z33 by Francesca Torzo.

The Renaissance concept of Chorography was addressed as a drawing instrument to capture both tangible and intangible characteristics of the places. Constructing the chorographies by hand was a long and intensive process that offered the students mental space and time to explore the architecture and capture the intrinsic values and intentions of the original architecture as well as the adaptive reuse intervention.