The KU Leuven research group Structural Contingencies bridges the gap between the practice of architecture and the academic world of architectural history and theory. It approaches architectural culture through the unfolding of the genealogy of its buildings: through the relation between the design process, its tools, and methods, and the buildings it produces. By studying the built past with a focus on spatial, material, and structural systematics, the research projects enable an attitude of resilience towards the future, from urban interventions to reuse and conversion. SC combines fundamental research with more operative and ahistorical techniques such as deep reading, redrawing, and rewriting. SC fosters its creative and hybrid lens, fueled by the expertise of its researchers who are both practicing architects and academic writers.

An intrinsic part of shaping the SC approach is the explorative research into specific historical buildings, conducted by the students within the Structural Contingencies master design studios. Through the analysis of specific historical artifacts, urbanisms, and atmospheres, and through processes of abstraction and superposition in time, the students aim to create layered and critical contingencies for the current design practice. The dissection through drawing hovers between the intentions of architecture and personal close readings. Simultaneously, the students experiment with this mono-referential research within a series of collective/individual projects, thus exploring the architectural potential of transformation as a foundation for designing large-scale construction projects. This creative design approach broadens the boundaries of the initial analysis, opening up to other readings than the mere historical or theoretical. This presentation will take a deeper look at these analytical processes of abstraction and superposition, unfolding how they operate through the creativity of the studio work.