This seminar is part of a broader initiative supporting the journal Architecture in Practice.
https://www.architectureinpractice.eu/

 

In architectural discourse, what is shared is often polished: the final render, the built result, the curated narrative. Yet behind every project lies a dense, messy, and often invisible terrain of effort, negotiation, failure, and persistence. PiR #07 – Un-Disclosed invites contributors to turn the spotlight toward this “dark side” of practice—the backstage, the back-office, the back-and-forth.

The annotated spreadsheets, the marked-up plans, the failed competitions, the internal debates, the moments of doubt and discovery. These are not just remnants—they are critical sites of learning, where practice is shaped, challenged, and redefined.

This issue seeks to uncover the undisclosed processes that rarely make it into publications or exhibitions yet form the backbone of architectural production. We are interested in the documents of struggle and negotiation: the iterations, the revisions, the test models, the internal emails, the contracts, the whispered questions of “are we still relevant?” or “is this still beautiful?”

At the same time, Un-Disclosed opens space for reflection on architectural taboos and tensions: the aesthetics of failure, the politics of visibility, the ‘fashion’ cycles of design, and the emotional labour of staying having a societal impact and surviving in a shifting professional landscape. What do we choose not to show, and why? What does this say about our values, our vulnerabilities, and our ambitions?

 

Programme

Session 1 — Dirty Documents & Unspoken Aesthetics 1: Discussing decisions

Chair: Benoît Burquel

#5 • The building as a model — Thomas Finch

#23 • dvltg — Ieva Davulyte & Jean-Marc Tang

#52 • Wall Talks — Shirley Dongwei Chen & Maria Espoinoza

#43 • The undisclosed design loop. Publishing dirty documents from visitatie. — Stijn Cools, Sofie De

Ridder, Elisabeth Lehouck & Nele Vancaeyseele

 

 

Session 2 — Dirty Documents & Unspoken Aesthetics 2: Design iterations

Chair: Matteo Robiglio

#40 • The Fireplace Chronicles — Sarah Becchio, Paolo Borghino, Davide Tommaso Ferrando &

Stefano Pujatti

#75 • Confessions from the Architectural Production of a Financial Megaproject: Ideological

Intervention, Ethical Dilemmas and Invisible Labour — Nihal Evirgen Kabal

#70 • DESIGN AS PROMPT, COMPETITION AS RITUAL: Transnational Back Offices in a Shifting

Chinese Landscape — Edoardo Bruno

#28 • Negotiating the ceiling in The carefull introduction of a hanging ceiling during the negotiation

phase of a tender procedure — Tilke Devriese & Saartje Arnout

 

 

Session 3 — Emotional Labor & Professional Identity 1: A practice from start to…

Chair: Tine Segers

#31 • Building an office — ACME

#35 • Being a young Architect — Dávid Smiló

#1 • Pain. — Tobias Rabold

#51 • Nothing Was Built, Everything Was Learned — Can Unbuilt Work Build Architects? From Academic Position to Collective Practice — Jakub Biernacki, Mikonaj Cichocki, Marianna Moskal &

Bartosz Teodorczyk

 

 

Session 4 — Emotional Labor & Professional Identity 2: Evolutional practice

Chair: Christine Fontaine

#33 • Stop answering in order to ask — Lost competitions as places of productive friction — Romain

Lucas & Belén Ramos

#34 • The Green Box — A Quiet Witness of Unspoken Artistic Research as Architectural Practice — Viktorija Bogdanova & Iris Andreson

#9 • WHO BUILDS ARCHITECTURE? Control, Conflict and Compromise — Luigi Olivieri

#44 • Future Archaeology — Lucia Concetta Vincelli & James Lansbury

 

 

Session 5 — Dirty Documents & Unspoken Aesthetics 3: Representation as inspiration

Chair: Elodie Degavre

#36 • Bring to front, Send to back : Designing the space of design — Andreas Nonneman

#41 • MEANINGFUL MISTAKES — Luise Leon Elbern

#61 • (titel volgt) — the_aesthetic_draft

#78 • This Is Not the Building We Designed — Mathieu Berteloot

 

 

Session 6 — Dirty Documents & Unspoken Aesthetics 4: Ideas and economic realities

Chair: tbd

#18 • Completed ? — Sébastien Bonnerot

#53 • The Lived model — Tim SimonMeyer

#60 • My dear ones, — Lilla Árkovics

 

Session 7 — Emotional Labor & Professional Identity 3: Designing identity

Chair: Alessandro Armando

#59 • Hot Lines — András Weiszkopf

#63 • Behind the scenes – Tosca, paper towels and sketchbooks — Sara Caruso

#39 • Hybrid drawing tools — Sofie Devriendt

#93 • Vlaamse Kaai 1 — Hera Van Sande

 

 

Session 8 — Controversies & Confessions 1: Disruptive processes – The law of beauty

Chair: Juliane Greb

#24 • Incompatible Commissions — Desperately looking for a common language — Pedro Duarte Bento

#25 • (un)adapted chair — Bert Stoffels

#8 • Re-sign — Marco Zanini

#69 • House of Desire — Drawing on the repeat — Katrin Brünjes

 

 

Session 9 — Dirty Documents & Unspoken Aesthetics 5: On construction sites

Chair: tbd

#77 • The prototype, between control and loss of control — Margaux Darrieus

#82 • The Drawing — Ognen Arsov & Ana Kosi

#83 • WORKFACE DETAILS — Drawing on the wall, from cave to cavity — Michiel De Cleene

 

 

Session 10 — Dirty Documents & Unspoken Aesthetics 6: Work in progress / Ongoing

Chair: Wouter Van Acker

#21 • A continuous project altered frequently (after Robert Morris) — Lars Fischer

#71 • Before it is made presentable — Gino Baldi & Serena Comi

#90 • FERMETTE OHNE EIGENSCHAFTEN — lina bentaleb & tomás barberá ramallo

#92 • Umbauleitung — Vincent Matzmorr

 

 

Session 11 — Emotional Labor & Professional Identity 4: Work, Life & ethics in practice

Chair: Tomas Ooms

#87 • “You guys always buy the most expensive doors just get one that works.” — Stephanie Davidson & Georg Rafailidis

#88 • The Architecture of Exhaustion — Carmen Osten

#84 • (titel volgt) — Luc van Basten Batenburg

#67 • Schrödinger’s Cooperative: Architecture Between Completion and Abandonment — Onur .ztürk

 

 

Session 12 — Controversies & Confessions 2: Negotiation and experiment

Chair: Benoît Vandenbulcke

#56 • Binding Together a Project: The Hidden Role of Material Artefacts in Establishing the Trust Required to Build Experimental Work — Rachel O’Grady & Chris Upson

#49 • PLAYFUL ARCHITECTURE AS A WAY OF ACT — Louise de Froidmont

#9 • WHO BUILDS ARCHITECTURE? Control, Conflict and Compromise — Luigi Olivieri

#81 • Negotiating Heritage Power Dynamics in the Transformation of a Historic Square — Emanuele Barili & Olivia Gori

 

 [TS1]Titles are for the information of chairs, not to be communicated in the book of abstracts