By Office Without Office, text by Kersten Geers & Jelena Pancevac

Charleroi, the denigrated capital of the Belgian hinterland, is the unlikely new paradigm for a contemporary city. What seems an incoherent jumble of manmade exuberance—a byproduct of modernity, really—transcends the infamous architectural dichotomy between the centre and the periphery. This is the Large City; dispersed and decentralised, it embraces its post-industrial condition. An artificial nature where zero-kilometre food production, electric bikes and trail running enable everyone to live large.

Without nostalgia for its industrial ruins, nor contempt for modernity, the city was the subject of a year-long studio led by Kersten Geers at the Academy of Architecture USI in Mendrisio. As a form of “applied theory”, the book presents students’ projects—an imaginary city—coupled with some real projects: Megafactory by OFFICE and Palais des Expositions by Architecten Jan de Vylder Inge Vinck & AgwA. The book features photographs of Charleroi by Stefano Graziani.