House Machelen

Belgium

BOLD IS BEAUTIFUL | WHY

#bold | Cie O prefers outspoken designs. Therefore, we avoid grey answers and like to take coloured risks. Our proposals aim to spark discussion and enthusiasm. As a result, they are “full of breath”.

#biotope builders | We design architecture as a broad living matter. Our architecture wants to give every life – not just humans – a well-thought-out place. Our projects anticipate a spatial, social, political, cultural, economic and ecological context that defines a biotope. We, therefore, acknowledge daily complexity and refuse to reduce it into simple aesthetic answers. We are biotope builders.

#civil | As a team working intensively together, we believe that it is all about empowering one another relentlessly, in all possible ways, regardless of the situation or context. This attitude we pose on ourselves but also our clients. We are at the same time firmly optimistic, non-self-referential and outspoken civil: Architecture is not an autonomous discipline but a public task.

#maximalist | We are going voluntarily. We create generous designs. We swaddle them with colours and materials, and light. Our designs are resilient in time because they are strategically plentiful and tactile.

#humour | Humour and imagination generate happiness and progress. Innovation is the smile in the process. We want to shake, surprise, amaze and sometimes tease with our proposals.

HOW

#versatility | We refuse to develop a “signature language”. Initially unbiased, we make decisions through targeted insights. Modus operandi is an uncurbed versatility, imagination and intuition. We navigate as omnivores, seeking information, collecting and ordering data, a bit like editors would do. We approach an assignment from different scales and points of view. We like working with end-users, thinkers, other biotope-builders, practical experts, artists.. We are system thinkers: broad-minded, undogmatic and pragmatic in one.

Contact this office

Category
  • Architects
Location
Gent, Belgium
Employees
10
Website
www.compagnie-o.be
Founded
2008