common:latest-news
The exhibition Dirty Materials: Undoing, Dismantling, Undesigning is opening on Thursday 22nd of January at 7:00PM. It will be on show in our exhibition space et al. until Saturday 7th of February.
Visits possible every Friday (10:00-17:00) and Saturday afternoon (14:00-18:00) or on request!
Dirty Materials
In the framework of our Night School programme we are delighted to host the exhibition Dirty Materials: Undoing, Dismantling, Undesigning that will open on Thursday 22nd of January at 7:00PM in our exhibition space et al.
| common:date | 23.01.2026 - 07.02.2026 |
The exhibition presents the outcome of CUMA’s latest design studio led by Sophie Dars (Accattone) and Thierry De Cuypere (V+) between September 2024 and June 2025. CUMA is an experimental architecture studio at the Architecture Faculty of the ULB La Cambre Horta, that combines research, teaching, and speculative design. Positioned at the intersection of architecture, material studies, and environmental critique, the studio invites students to question the role of materials in shaping contemporary modes of construction and habitation. Through collective inquiry, CUMA encourages students to move beyond solution-driven design and instead engage with processes of investigation, dismantling, and rethinking existing material systems.
Over the past year, the studio focused on so-called “dirty materials”, whose extraction and production rely on intensive resource consumption and generate significant environmental harm. Students conducted in-depth research into industrial processes, chemical compositions, and supply chains, while also examining the architectural imaginaries and attachments these materials have produced. Rather than rejecting them outright, the studio explored how these persistent, often unavoidable materials could be critically reused, reinterpreted, or dismantled through architectural speculation.
The exhibition presents the students’ work, bringing together narrative atlases, research documents, and architectural models developed throughout the studio. It offers a glimpse into an alternative architectural practice, one that embraces renunciation, reuse, and critical engagement with the material legacy of the 20th century.
The opening on January 22 will be accompanied by the book launch of DIRTY MATERIALS, a publication documenting the studio’s research and projects. The book will be available for purchase during the opening and exhibition.
The exhibition will be on show until Saturday 7th of February.
Open on Fridays from 10:00 to 17:00 and Saturdays from 14:00 to 18:00 or on request. Join us on January 22nd to discover their work!
With the collaboration of: Studio CUMA, ULB Faculty of Architecture La Cambre Horta.
Teachers: Sophie Dars, Thierry De Cuypere
Students: Max Annaert, Romain Aubry, Yasmine Bahij, Evrard de Biolley, Clémentine Brun, Francis Bryon, Hadrien Chevalier, Jérémy Chereau, Enzo Chaumier, Hugo D'Oliveira Cardo, Rui Da Costa Pereira, Victor Dameron, Osman Demiray, Noah Devos, Florian Dubois, Lucas Duclaut, Léa Favresse, Camille Frejafon, Fanny Ceuppens, Erika Cipleu, Soufian Ennajem, Jade Gilson, Natan Giambra, Aristide Givois, Lucie Glaude, Yaara Graisman, Christophe Gerbino, Baptiste Hamadani, Clara Hooghe, Zoé Janssens, Soukaina Jaouhari, Blaise Jones, Lucien Kohnen, Maxime Lampach, Elise Loriau, Edouard Michel, Marie Mertens, Aline Nandi, Jakub Niemynski, Swmia Peeters, Lara Pietkowicz, Tim Pierson, Maxence Postel, Merlin Regi, Mateo Rodriguez Forero, Rafael Rodrigues Braguês, Octavie Schwartz, Ted Schwaller, Halima Smouni, Julia Stenka, Léo Stévens, Ilona Truong Huyen Thuoc, Elisa Van Vynckt, Zahra Zadfaraj