Table Setting #3 Sophia Holst

Hypothetical use scenarios

Holst reinterprets the rooftop landscape of De Singel by manipulating the architectural elements in the photographs as she draws. She imagines hypothetical use scenarios, elaborates on existing elements and sometimes suggests completely different scale levels. In doing so she explores, tests and questions the boundaries of public space. Holst presents her ideas in an idiosyncratic composition of tables and benches on the square in front of De Singel. The installation deliberately seeks out the contrast between the distinctive but relatively hidden spaces of the rooftop route and the busy but inhospitable exhibition area of the asphalt square.

Sophia Holst

Sophia Holst is a Dutch architect and researcher based in Brussels. Holst holds a Master’s in Fine Arts (Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam) and Architecture (KU Leuven, Brussels). She has previously worked with Studio Anne Holtrop, NU architectuuratelier and CRIT. architects, among others. She was one of the laureates of FORMAT 2019 (Z33, Hasselt) and she completed a residency at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht.

Holst is currently developing a distinctive and multifaceted architecture and research practice. Working from a transdisciplinary perspective and using various media, she aims to reveal, question and test the political and ideological structures underlying urban space. Through research, exhibitions and implemented projects, she not only navigates a distinctive course within the disciplines of architecture and urbanism, but also constantly questions them.

25.08.2022

Vernissage

On 25 August 2022 we will open the exhibition Table Setting #3. Architect and researcher Sophia Holst will explain her intervention and give insight into her multidisciplinary architectural practice. She will do so on the roof of De Singel. Afterwards, we will exchange further during a reception on the forecourt. Would you like to attend? Then book your place.

Tafelzetting

Table Setting is the new exhibition series for young architects in Flanders and Brussels from the Flanders Architecture Institute and De Singel. It is the next stage in a tradition of young architecture at the arts center. Since the 1980s, established names have found a stage there upon which to showcase their early oeuvre (Young Architecture in Belgium in 1988 and 35m³ young architecture in 2005). Today too, young architects are challenged to determine their own position with regard to the discipline, complex spatial situations and social questions.

The square in front of De Singel represents the cacophony in which young architects start up their own practice. The multiform boundaries of the asphalt expanse are an ideal backdrop for the exhibition series. Every architect exhibiting there has a set of tables with props designed by Laura Muyldermans. The tables not only serve as an installation in which the designers showcase their work, but also challenge them to take possession of the space on the square.