Ur Architects

The work of UR architects, founded by Nikolaas Vande Keere and Regis Verplaetse, spans the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape. Essential to our methodology is the cross-fertilisation between research and realisations. Beyond the image we aim to generate reflection and questioning of the current state. UR stands for Utopia Revisited, the title of a winning Europan 6 entry. Utopia as the imagining of a better society. This led to research into socially relevant problems such as the future of residential care institutions, initiating productive, sustainable landscapes or adaptive re-use of underused church buildings. In each project, we engage with the existing situation in its full complexity, material and immaterial. Rather than cleaning the slate, we seek to activate the potential of what is already there through an empirical process of re-evaluation and adjustment.