Els van Meerbeek

Background

About Els van Meerbeek

Els Van Meerbeek is an architect, educator and researcher. She is bridging professional expertise with academia - teaching aspiring students combined with doctoral research on imagination and architectural drawings. ° She earned her master's degree in engineering sciences – architecture from KU Leuven (1998). Early in her career, Els gained valuable experience through internships at WIT and Flores Prats Arquitectes before joining De Smet Vermeulen Architects, where she worked as a project architect for ten years. From the very beginning, she embraced the synergy between practice, research, and education. Alongside her early professional experience, Els engaged in research within the Urbanism and Architecture (OSA) research group and taught at KU Leuven’s Faculty of Engineering Science (2001-2005). In 2008, Els founded her own architectural practice, Carton123 architects, which she leads alongside Joost Raes. Based in Brussels, its portfolio is divers in scale and program, with public projects (schools, community, care.) and private commissions, preferably in a dense urban context. Carton123 is a strong believer in the power of architecture, which has a major impact on our wellbeing and on society in general. Collective dreams, the art of bricolage, joy, surprise and wonder, together with the transition of existing patrimony are key elements in their work. Committed to knowledge sharing, Els has remained involved in education. Since 2013, she has participated as an external jury expert and held a guest teaching position at TU Delft (2019-2020) in the Urban Architecture graduation studio. In September 2020, she was appointed assistant professor of architectural design at KU Leuven, where she currently teaches first-year bachelor students. Her doctoral research explores the role and power of architectural drawings in both professional practice and education, reinforcing her mission to integrate academic research and architectural practice.