Edited by Kersten Geers & Jelena Pancevac

This book chronicles the third academic year of the studio led by Kersten Geers, Jelena Pancevac, Guido Tesio and Fabrizio Ballabio at the Academy of Architecture USI in Mendrisio. Stemming from the idea of ‘large form’ and the built environment as a testament to the futility of the virtual one, this body of work investigates how the model of grand ensembles can perform in urban fringes (in Milan), and what to do with the existing obsolete office space in the urban centre (in Brussels). Our unlikely guide to the contemporary idea of sustainable living and working in the city was the work of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck, which would grow into a separate book itself (Excess of Architecture). Brussels also served as a testbed for establishing a relation between the production of culture and the instrumental role of architecture within that process.