They aim to take a fresh and nuanced look across a mostly ignored economic sector: the dismantling of buildings aimed to be destroyed and reuse of building materials and architectural elements… Meet Rotor, the design and architecture collective founded in 2005 by Maarten Gielen, Tristan Boniver and Lionel Devlieger. Counting today a growing number of members, it was built around a common fascination for material flow. Commissioner of DECONSTRUCTION, one of the main exhibitions of the next edition of RECIPROCITY, we would like to introduce you to them.

Rotor manages the concept and construction of architectural and design projects, but its approach is unique: starting from a precise observation of deconstruction practices and reuse of materials, the group launched a series of open discussions and develops a critical position on design, material resources and the concept of waste through studies, exhibitions, publications and conferences. In short, a theoretical dismantling before it comes to the materials.

The Brussels collective, who represented the Federation Wallonia-Brussels at the Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2010 with the project “Usus / wears,” has since known a constantly renewed success abroad. Evidenced by the prestigious Global Award for Sustainable Architecture at the Cité de l’Architecture in Paris and the Jonge Maaskantprijs 2015 in the Netherlands, awarding their research about material flows in architecture and their concrete proposals of not only poetic solutions but also practical ones, always sensitive to society issues.

Last but not least, Rotor has launched a competition, “Challenge Opalis” (to discover here: http://opalis.be/fr/pages/challenge).

How to tell deconstruction and recycling of recovered materials?
We are very curious to see the exhibition during RECIPROCITY 2015! One thing is certain: it will be at least as original as the collective itself.