ARCHIVE
Paraply Workshop 2025 — Load, The Everyday
Archive of workshop will be updated after the completion of 2025
Theme
Load, The Everyday
Load, The Everyday
Not its grams or its load-bearing capacity. But its real mass. The echo of its extraction, the dust of its transport, the ledger of emissions, the strain in a builder’s arm, the digital residue of drawings, simulations, spreadsheets. We ask: what is it we really carry when we build?
The 2025 edition of Paraply turns to the theme of Load. In architecture, to load is to carry the forces of the structure. Defying the rules of gravity where stacked stone became symbols of endurance. Cast iron and ornament flirting with the air in the sky. As well as heavy concrete cantilevering over glass seeking to levitate. And now, matter is no longer enough. We find ourselves scrutinising the very need to build. Architecture itself begins to evaporate, replaced by its paper footprints.
Beyond the elegance of structure lies a thickness we rarely measure. What is the psychic load of endless PDFs? The infrastructural weight of late-stage capitalism? In the 2025 edition of Paraply we will explore the physical reality of architecture along with its metaphysical becoming. Inviting participants to think through the emotional, logistical, material and historical load we design with. To treat weight as more than gravitational pull, but to see it as memory, debt, fatigue and responsibility. Will we carry the weight of the profession or will we carve out new paths?
This summer, we will handle discarded matter, not as surplus but as a symptom. We will work with what has already been shaped and handled. We will remember that no object is without lineage, no structure without innocence, and no architecture without change.
Workshop Leaders
Olivier Goethals
Stand Van Zaken
Oana Stănescu
Olivier Goethals
Stand Van Zaken
Oana Stănescu
Olivier Goethals studied Architecture and Urban Development. He is working simultaneously as architect and artist. In his wide practice he researches the connection between space and consciousness.
Olivier made spatial interventions and artistic installations for venues such as: Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, Ruhrtriennial Bochum, Biennial Lyon, Extra City Antwerp, BNKR Munich, Triennale Milano & Palais De Tokyo Paris.
His drawings and paintings have been shown in Palais De Tokyo Paris, Kunstverein Arnsberg, Kristof De Clerck Ghent, Fred & Ferry Antwerp, kunsthal Kade Amersfoort, 019 Ghent & Biennial of Lyon.
Previously he worked as a freelance architect for De Vylder Vinck Taillieu (2008-2016). Since 2010, he has been teaching at the KULeuven Architecture Department. He was a guest critic at RU Ghent faculty of Architecture, LUCA School of Arts and Architecture Academie Maastricht. Olivier is actively part of the art collective 019-ghent.
www.oliviergoethals.info/
@oliviergoethals.info
Stand van Zaken— translated as State of Play — is a modular organism that that brings together specialists across various fields. It thrives on fluidity and adaptability, continuously reshaping itself in response to the contexts and encounters that inspire its projects. Founded by Belgian architects Theo De Meyer and Stefanie Everaert (co-founder of doorzon interieur architecten) it serves as a dynamic framework for capturing these moments in time. Stand van Zaken is centered around the creation of processes, spaces, and objects. It develops innovative works that merge diverse knowledge and skills, opening up creative possibilities. These collaborations are driven by a desire to craft new contexts and experiences, reinterpreting spaces and materials to uncover new meanings within familiar environments.
@stand__van__zaken
Oana Stănescu is a Romanian-born architect and designer whose work encompasses architecture, public space, and cultural initiatives. She runs an international design studio based between Berlin and New York, with projects ranging from public infrastructure and urban transformation to retail and exhibition spaces. In 2024, she curated the Beta Biennial in Timișoara. Stănescu is also a dedicated educator, having taught at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and UCLA. Her practice emphasizes thoughtful, context-sensitive design, and she actively contributes to architectural discourse through teaching, writing, and public speaking engagements around the world.
www.oanas.net/
@oooooana
Location
Holmen was the main base for the Danish navy from 1690 to 1993 and was also the country’s biggest workplace for those 300 years. In the early 90s, the military started moving out of Holmen, and when the Copenhagen Naval Base closed down and became a Naval Station in 1993, it opened up the area for a complete transformation. In a place where once warships were built and repaired, a diverse community of architects, designers, artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs moved into the area. The raw character of Holmen’s industrial past has been transformed into a fertile ground for creativity.
The old naval shipyard’s machine workshop was originally constructed between 1915 and 1918 by engineers Christiani & Nielsen, working together with architect Olaf Schmidth, who also designed other buildings within the former military area. The building is one of the finest examples of early Danish reinforced concrete architecture. An adaptable and strong building material that has revolutionized construction by combining the strength of concrete with the tensile strength of steel bars.
From its beginnings as a shipyard machine workshop until 1993, the building’s destiny changed intensely in 2000 when architect Søren Robert Lund reimagined it as a commercial space. The building’s journey continued in 2011 when the Danish Design School moved in.
Guest Lecturers
Bibliography
Nelo Magalhães, How much does your road weigh?, 2025
Public Exhibition