With reclaimed land previously allocated to cars, the Grijalva River boardwalk offers generous public spaces and reconnects the Mexican city of Villahermosa to its river In Villahermosa, nature reigns supreme. Surrounded by rivers, lagoons, wild vegetation and the scorching heat of a humid tropical climate, the city’s identity is shaped by intense and unpredictable natural forces. The capital of the Mexican state of Tabasco was founded in 1564 on the banks of the Grijalva River, a vital trade route that has significantly shaped the city’s development. For locals, the river has long been both blessing and threat; major floods have been recorded since the 17th century. A devastating flood in 2007 submerged what officials estimated to be 80 per cent of the city, damaging or destroying more than 120,000 homes. In the aftermath of the inundation, high concrete retaining walls were built along both banks of the Grijalva River to prevent further flooding. While this was an understandable measure at first glance, it consequently caused residents to lose both their visual and physical connection with the river. As a result, people moved, particularly from the western bank where the historical centre is located, to new areas further away from the Grijalva River. The riverfront was left to deteriorate into a troubled zone. On the eastern bank, the neighbourhood of Gaviotas was already considered unsafe before the flood, yet it maintained more of its residential character. In 2022, 15 years after the dramatic flood, then‑president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, more commonly known as AMLO, announced the construction of a new 6km‑long riverfront promenade in Villahermosa, the capital of his home state. The idea was to enable the population to once again take pride in and live with their river, looking to Paris and Rome as examples. The monumental task, with its large urban scale and the population’s psychological trauma, was entrusted to the Ministry of Agricultural, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU) as part of their Programa de Mejoramiento Urbano (Urban Improvement Programme, or PMU). This programme aimed to use architecture as an ‘instrument of social transformation’. High expectations were placed on these projects; architects were asked to create ‘places of national pride’ while improving everyday living conditions. The architectural trio of Alejandro Castro Jiménez Labora, Mauricio Rocha Iturbide, and Óscar Rodríguez Castañeda, along with their teams, were commissioned to design a linear park along both banks of the Grijalva. Each architect contributed their strength: Castro brought his expertise in poetic urban furniture; Rocha his sensitive and atmospheric architectural approach; and Rodríguez his thoughtful urban and traffic planning skills. The SEDATU team provided technical and participatory expertise, enabling contextual sensitivity by sharing essential information about the site’s topography, soil conditions and water flows. From the city’s existing observatory, the Torre del Caballero landmark, visitors enjoy an excellent view over the redesigned riverbanks. The historical centre and the Gaviotas neighbourhood now form a single ensemble, while the intervention carefully responds to the different conditions found along the length of the river. The project’s main objective is to reclaim some of the land previously allocated to cars and create a promenade for pedestrians and slower vehicles, punctuated with public spaces and facilities. On both sides of the river, cars are now limited to just one or two grey asphalt lanes. Running alongside are generous cycle paths and pedestrian walkways made of earth‑coloured concrete. Speed bumps in the same material and colour connect the pavements on either side of the road while helping to limit traffic speed to 30km/h, further enhancing pedestrian safety. Several design elements are found along almost the entire promenade. A ribbon of light‑grey benches delineates the edge of the elevated riverfront; stone walls, steps and ramps are used to negotiate the slight changes in level; planters and lush vegetation soften the transition to the walkways, creating a welcome buffer from street traffic. The most visually striking components are the tall, red‑pigmented concrete light poles on the elevated path, adorned with elegant L‑shaped steel light fixtures, which establish a strong and cohesive visual rhythm. Only upon closer inspection you notice the 2007 retaining walls peeking through the dense tropical vegetation. Removing these unattractive concrete barriers was never an option; they stand as a symbol of successful flood protection for the local population. The architectural team ingeniously built the elevated promenade atop the existing wall – an effective concealment from the street side while simultaneously inviting residents to reconnect with the Grijalva.  At the foot of the observatory, directly below the retaining wall, the earth‑toned concrete platforms of the Carlos A Madrazo Becerra Park stretch towards the river. Visitors can access the park via a ramp from the promenade on the western bank or by ferry from the opposite side. In the park, concrete furnishings invite visitors to linger among tropical vegetation set against tall natural stone walls. Importantly, it is a space that is durable and requires minimal maintenance – a survival formula for public parks in the Mexican context. Small traces on the concrete benches reveal that the park weathered its baptism of fire last year: the design accommodates the river’s natural dynamics, adapting to fluctuating water levels without compromising public safety. Beyond providing much‑needed shade, the extensive planting of native, low‑maintenance plants on both riverbanks has improved soil stability. Above the park, on a broad extension of the elevated pathway, stand three long, elegant buildings with large cantilevered roofs supported by hefty beams resting on distinctive double columns. The tall glass walls that enclose the interiors are set back, creating a visual flow between interior and exterior spaces. While the beams evoke timber construction, they – like the columns – are made of the same pigmented concrete used for the promenade paving. Despite their refined composition, these structures have remained largely unused since their completion over a year ago, neither serving their intended function as restaurants nor hosting alternative uses. Even the beautifully designed park sees only limited public engagement. The ambitious goal of SEDATU with the PMU projects to ‘counteract violence and strengthen the social fabric’ appears, for now, to have fallen short in this area. According to national statistics, Villahermosa ranks first in perceived insecurity among Mexican cities. This sense of insecurity is tangible on the promenade by the city centre, where buildings that look abandoned contribute to an atmosphere of neglect. The situation is markedly different on the opposite riverbank, in the Gaviotas neighbourhood. Construction of the 3.5km promenade on this side began in 2021 with three open pavilions housing several small kiosks, which quickly evolved into popular taco stands. The Plaza Solidaridad, revitalised by the architectural trio, draws people from the surrounding vibrant neighbourhood. Further south, the final section that was built is a large sports area and children’s playground, which were embraced by the local community even before their official inauguration in February 2024. Especially after sunset, when the air cools, the well‑lit Gaviotas riverfront comes to life. During daylight hours, however, air‑conditioned shopping centres remain the preferred gathering places for the residents of Villahermosa. Rocha describes the city’s new promenade as a ‘jazz composition’, a striking metaphor that speaks of rhythmic complexity and the freedom to improvise. With just a few designed elements and carefully selected colours, the architects have harmoniously layered the river’s urban spaces. The project is earning international recognition but, in Mexico, it faced sharp criticism and was overshadowed by accusations of nepotism. Castro is a friend of AMLO’s son, and the fact that the intervention took place in the home state of the then‑president, coupled with its substantial budget by local standards, drew considerable attention. According to residents, this undermined public acceptance. When asked about the negative press, Rocha speaks of the need to develop a ‘crisis muscle’; he says architects working on public projects in Mexico must ‘let go of perfectionism’ as much lies beyond their control.  During AMLO’s six‑year term, which ended in 2024, SEDATU implemented 1,300 PMU projects in 193 highly marginalised municipalities across the country. While many of these interventions undoubtedly improved people’s quality of life, the Villahermosa riverside project also reveals architecture’s limitations, exposing some of the programme’s weaknesses: architectural interventions often act as sticking plasters on an extensively damaged urban fabric. They are handed over from a national ministry with comprehensive expertise and funding to local governments lacking the means to sustain them. Although SEDATU conducted participatory consultations during the project’s implementation, this engagement was absent once the project was completed. Public acceptance and appropriation can take time; what this project does is send an invitation out. 2025-06-05 Reuben J Brown Share AR June 2025RoadsBuy Now

Submitted by WA Contents Three circular volumes create Villa Noon in Sotogrande designed by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos Spain Architecture News - May 30, 2025 - 12:29   html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" Valencia-based architecture practice Fran Silvestre Arquitectos has revealed design for a house composed of three circular volumes in Sotogrande, Spain.Named Villa Noon, the house is thoughtfully incorporated into a topographically defined setting, utilizing the slope of the ground to open each volume onto a distinct horizon. In order to achieve visual harmony with the natural environment without leaving an unwelcome footprint on the landscape, the house's layout, which is divided into five circular sections, was designed to seamlessly blend with the surroundings.Every one of these pieces has a rear patio that offers protection from the strongest winds and a front terrace that shields from the sun. In addition to optimizing orientation, this circular geometry reduces the volumetric impact, enabling the building to interact with the landscape in a controlled and deliberate manner. The outside materiality gradually integrates into its surroundings because it was constructed from indigenous Sierra Elvira stone, which has white veins and grey tones. This organic texture will eventually blend in as though it were a natural feature of the relief of the ground.A spacious, open vestibule that serves as a threshold between the outside and the inside of the villa is the entryway. It is surrounded by a curved wall. Visitors are introduced to a series of chambers that adjust to the various terrain levels in this transitional area. While the day area unfolds on a lower platform, open to the landscape and directly connected to the outdoors, the night area is located on a higher level, apart from the other functions.The well-being areas, like the gym, are located on the same floor and provide both practical and visual connections to the separate visitor area. Each zone's privacy is protected by this tiered arrangement, which also keeps the composition's overall spatial continuity flexible. By combining geothermal and aerothermal technologies, the house produces an excess of electricity and becomes energy self-sufficient. A mechanism for atmospheric water condensation is also included, which draws moisture from the air for household usage.Techniques including choosing native plant species based on their water requirements, utilizing natural mulch to prevent evaporation, and installing a drip irrigation system that only turns on when required are used to cut down on water usage in the garden. While infiltration trenches, also known as swales, filter and direct rainfall, green roofs enhance insulation and collect rainfall. This system is completed by permeable surfaces and cisterns, which enable the collected water to be stored and used again.By taking these steps, the house also becomes self-sufficient in water, which is a very reasonable objective in this region of Spain, which is the wettest in the nation due to the Sierra de Grazalema."We have always been fascinated by how the Namib Desert beetle collects water: in an extremely arid environment, this insect tilts its body into the wind to condense fog on its shell, whose surface combines areas that attract water and others that repel it, allowing the droplets to slide directly into its mouth," said Fran Silvestre Arquitectos."A natural lesson in efficiency that inspires and reinforces the logic of this system," the firm added.The idea is reminiscent of architectural works like Kazuyo Sejima's Villa in the Forest and Arne Jacobsen's Leo Henriksen House, whose circular shapes and attention to the environment served as inspiration. In contrast to radiocentric solutions, this proposal chooses what we refer to as "the squaring of the circle": service areas are included into irregularly shaped zones, while residential spaces are resolved through an orthogonal floor plan. In the end, we anticipate that this architecture will blend in with its surroundings over time, appearing to be a component of a karstic relief.SketchRoof level planFirst floor planGround floor planBasement floor planSectionRecently, Fran Silvestre Arquitectos unveiled design for a winery with curvacious form adressing winemaking process in Zayas de Báscones, Soria, Spain. In addition, the firm completed a house featuring irregularly shifted volumes on an irregularly shaped plot within Altos de Valderrama, in Sotogrande, Spain.Project factsProject name: Villa NoonArchitects: Fran Silvestre ArquitectosLocation: Sotogrande, Spain.Developer: Cork Oak MansionAll renderings & drawings courtesy of Fran Silvestre Arquitectos.> via Fran Silvestre Arquitectos

InsaneHURRICANE May 22, 2025, 9:30pm 1 This is a kind of detailed specific question: Here goes: I have a material. I have a Niagara System with 8 particles being spawned in the emitter. I have made material parameters, and I want to set these as Dynamic Material Parameter in my Niagara System. I want to make a Blueprint that will have an array 8 colors, and that each of those colors will be applied to each of the 8 blades in my emitter. (We can pretend there are only 3 blades for simplicity. I can figure it out by just repeating from there.) I want to set the parameters in the Blueprint and then have the Blueprint make each blade the different color I set using the Dynamic Materials in Niagara. Maybe I’m overthinking it. I will try to draw out what I mean. TobiasTobasco May 22, 2025, 10:06pm 2 If I understood you correctly, you just want to set a Niagara property through Blueprint. I think the easiest way is to not go throught the material, but Niagara directly. I would create a user parameter on your Niagara system and set that one through Blueprint. If you, for any reason, still want to propagate this prameter to the material, you can do it via DynamicParameter. You would set the user param first through bluerpint, then use the user param in Niagara in the Dynamic Parameter, which gets used in the material.Hope that all makes sense EDIT: I just looked at your reference image again and had some other thoughts: What is the benefit of having everything in one system? If it’s multiple emitters vor each type, maybe it makes sense to have multiple Niagara systems instead? If it all needs to be one system, with different materials, you can also add one renderer for each type (blood, holy, …) and assign a different material to each via user parameter. Then you can do your plan with the different dynamic materials. I think. Or alternatively, I think it’s possible to set specific material parameters through Niagara as well. Basically Niagara creating the dynamic material instance for you, and you would then again only set your user parameters through Blueprint and Niagara would propaget it to the material.

This article includes spoilers for The Legend of Korra. Janet Varney and Dante Basco aren’t just stars of beloved animated epics The Legend of Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender, respectively, they are also hosts of Nickelodeon’s Avatar companion podcast, Braving the Elements – a status that makes them, as they joke, Ph.D. holders in “Avatarism.” The show is dedicated to all things Avatar and season 4 is set to dive into the 2012 sequel series, The Legend of Korra.  Den of Geek spoke with Varney (Korra) and Basco (Zuko) ahead of the podcast’s season 4 premiere to discuss their early reactions to seeing Korra (which Basco is watching for the first time), the possibility of a comic season of the podcast, and their advice for the star of upcoming sequel Avatar: Seven Havens. DEN OF GEEK: For the podcast you’re both starting your journey into watching Korra. How did you feel when, in Korra’s first episode, they just brushed away that long-held question of “Whatever happened to Zuko’s mom?” Dante Basco: I don’t know if I was prepared or not, but I already knew. I already went through the comics [which finally answered that question]. I was fine with that because I’m hip to the situation.  Janet Varney: I think by that time [creators and showrunners] Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko knew that answer was going to be very available. So they intentionally planted it in [the Korra premiere] as like a little tip of the hat. Dante Basco: A little wink to the audience. Obviously the podcast still has a lot to cover with Korra but, speaking of the comics, do you have any plans for how you’ll tackle them in the future? Could this possibly be a good chance to get an official radio play of those comics out there? JV: Oooo, a radio play would be fun. Talking about the comics has definitely been something that we talked about from the beginning. It’s just a matter of timing and what the powers that be decide about the when’s and how’s of it all. But we’ve weaseled in as much as we can on the podcast with people like [comic writers] Faith Erin Hicks and Gene Luen Yang. We’ve been like “come to the podcast, let’s lay the groundwork.” DB: A little radio play of the comics would be fun. JV: We did one for “Turf Wars” during the pandemic with Seychelle Gabriel [Asami], Mindy Sterling [Lin Beifong], David Faustino [Mako], and P. J. Byrne [Bolin]. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! There needs to be a version that comes with the book and it says, “when you hear the firebending sounds, turn the page.” DB: *firebending sounds* JV: Jeff Bennett [Radio broadcaster in Korra] can do all the stage directions! The just-announced Avatar: Seven Havens is set to be a sequel to Korra and will feature an Earthbender who discovers she’s the next Avatar. What advice do you two have to whoever ends up playing this new Avatar?  JV: Get ready for a wild ride, my friend. DB: Take it in stride. Have a good time on the journey. It’s a journey – the whole thing. You get to go through the show, the fanbase, and just being a part of this wonderful world. Janet, do you remember what you were told when you were brought in to do Korra? Especially since you were coming into a franchise that already had a huge fan base.  JV: When we had started recording, Sarah Noonan, who was heading up casting, grabbed me outside of Studio A, took me by the shoulders, looked deeply into my eyes and said, “Are you ready for your life to change?” I was like, “Sarah, I love you, but I’ve been told that before because it’s Hollywood.” Dante knows. DB: Sometimes it’s yourself telling you that. JV: So you get really good at pushing that into the background. DB: You have to or we’d all be put away a long time ago. JV: But Sarah was more right than anyone ever has been. Yes, my life is completely different and so much of my life is connected to this thing that she was dead-on about. DB: No one told me that at all, not even Mike and Bryan. No one knew this was gonna happen the way it happened. It was like, “we’re doing a show. We all have done shows, so let’s just have a good time.” I don’t think anyone was prepared for it to be what it became. Truly. Janet, due to events in – Foreshadow Report! – the Korra series, this new Avatar in Seven Havens is not going to have the ability to call on all the past Avatars. What do you think an Avatar will be like with only Korra to call on for advice? JV: First of all, I just want to point out: it’s not Korra’s fault. I just wanna cover my bases. Let me just go ahead and remind everyone that losing that connection to the past Avatars was definitely not her fault. You wanna go ahead and blame someone? You can blame any number of people. You wanna blame Unalaq? Go for it. You wanna blame Vaatu? I welcome you to do so. DB: Vaatu for sure. Vaatu has the biggest blame in this situation. JV: At least Vaatu is …there has to be dark and light, right? But Unalaq? Gross ambition. Come on, guy. DB: These shady Waterbenders out there. There’s all these nice Waterbenders but when there’s bad apples it’s very bad. JV: Genuinely though: we don’t know any details about Seven Havens. Even if we did, we could not say! JV: Who knew that was such a dominant trait? DB: It’s such a dominant trait, it just happens in every generation. You talk about people reincarnating? That voice reincarnates every generation. If you get great grandpa’s voice? That means you’ve got to do something special in your life. Don’t squander that. What are you both most excited for people to hear in this upcoming season of the podcast? JV: Dante has been predicting what he thinks might happen. Every episode we revisit what he did predict for whatever Korra episode we’re watching and then we look to the future. I want to give you an extra shout out, buddy, because it’s not easy being wrong about something. But right after you found out you’re wrong about one prediction, now you have to make a new prediction about the episode. You showed up for that every time. It’s a decent track record. What’s the hit-to-miss ratio? DB: At least 50/50. JV: It might not be 50/50… but, yeah, you know what? Let’s call it 50/50!  DB: I’m excited for the whole audience to get into Korra again. It’s the 20th anniversary of Avatar and that’s amazing but going into revisiting (or for me, the first time) the Korra world in its entirety? It’s very fascinating to take a look at the Korra world in a new space and time. For fans of the podcast, they’ve seen me on the spot kind of defending Fire Nation for many years now. There are good folks in the Fire Nation! Some have economic anxiety. DB: Yeah, but I like to see Janet now a little bit on the hot seat. Not just Janet, I’m gonna have to throw the whole Water Tribe under that bus. There are some evil Waterbenders in Korra!  JV: What a gift we gave you. It’s like we made it for you. DB: There’s a whole world thinking ill thoughts of the Fire Nation and I want to point the camera a little at the Water Tribe for a while. JV: The whole Industrial Revolution thing has been so fun and great to dig into. It’s such a different piece to talk about with our guests. That setting is so rich and it’s something that we see the guests bringing up time and time again. It’s just an aspect of the show that really excites people because it’s closer to our technology. It opens up different perspectives from people on what is valuable about bending. I think it’s really fun to get into. The newest season of Braving the Elements is now available wherever you get your podcasts.

In the peaceful countryside of Zayas de Báscones, Spain, a new winery by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos is quietly emerging. The Bodegas Dominio d’Echauz winery is designed to be more than just a site for making wine. Once finished, it will function as an archive, a research lab, and a sanctuary focused on preserving and studying rare grape varieties. This thoughtful approach blends modern architecture with a mission to protect local wine heritage, making the winery an important space for both production and conservation in the region. Designer: Fran Silvestre Arquitectos Unlike many wineries built for scale, this project takes a more modest, thoughtful approach. The planned curved white structure will follow the natural lines of the surrounding vineyards, making it feel like a seamless part of the landscape. Despite its understated appearance, the building stands out for its innovative use of materials and focus on sustainability. The winery will be built mainly from hempcrete blocks—a mix of hemp fibers, lime, and water—known for being both strong and environmentally friendly. These blocks will form two curved walls, adding both stability and a gentle visual appeal. A single-pitch metal roof will top the structure, while Diathonite, a cork-based insulating mortar, will coat the walls, floors, and ceilings to improve insulation throughout. These materials work together to create a unified, seamless look while delivering strong thermal performance. This helps keep the interior temperature stable, which is essential for wine aging and can reduce or even remove the need for mechanical cooling or heating. The winery’s minimalist white color scheme and natural finishes align with Fran Silvestre’s broader design philosophy. Here, these choices are both practical and beautiful. The white cork render reflects sunlight, helping the building stay cool during Castile’s hot summers. Its low profile keeps the structure discreet, blending it into the landscape. Despite its simplicity, the design leaves a lasting impression. Inside, the space is organized for efficiency. Grapes enter at one end, move through fermentation, and age in oak barrels before bottling. The layout also provides space for tasting, gatherings, research, and storage. These thoughtful design choices highlight the winery’s true mission. Rather than focusing on mass production, the space is dedicated to micro-vinification—small batches that explore the preservation and potential of rare grape varieties. Developed with Vitis Navarra, the project aims to protect grapes at risk of extinction, creating a living genetic archive rather than chasing high output. In the context of shifting climates and changing tastes, these lesser-known varietals could shape the future of winemaking. The first collection, called Basajaun after a Basque forest spirit, symbolizes the winery’s role as a quiet guardian of natural and cultural heritage. When finished, the winery will be more than just a place for wine; it will stand as a living archive of sustainability and stewardship. The post Spanish Winery Made From Hempcrete Blocks Is Setting A New Standard For Sustainability & Wine Heritage first appeared on Yanko Design.

Part antiques dealer, part architect, this Belgian maverick is an unlikely source of lessons for contemporary material reuse Marcel Raymaekers (1933–) never qualified as an architect. This did not stop him from procuring the materials for, designing and building around 150 villas across Belgium. The exact number is unknown: Belgium’s architectural establishment mostly ignored and rejected Raymaekers just as he ignored and rejected them, and as a result his work has never been collated or taken seriously. Raymaekers himself never kept records of his work; he regarded the drawing board as a ‘torture device’, preferring sketches and improvisation on site, determined by the material batches he had to hand. The extent of Raymaekers’ oeuvre is also hard to fathom because he wanted to keep it under the radar of the tax authorities. They caught up with him eventually; he was bankrupted in 2014. Today, Raymaekers is a 92‑year‑old tenant living inside what was once his personal empire, Queen of the South, in the Limburg countryside in north‑western Belgium. This compound was – and to a limited extent, still is – a vast salvage yard packed with components scavenged from aggressive postwar demolition. This puzzling place, completed in 1972 but constantly expanded, is stuffed with billowing pitched roofs, impossible archways, numerous appendages and antechambers. In its heyday – the 1970s and ’80s – Queen of the South also had a nightclub, a restaurant, a jazz venue, Raymaekers’ own ultra‑luxe apartment, and an estaminet – a plush, wood‑panelled, banquet‑seated, mirror‑pillared café‑bar. Marcel Raymaekers was born in 1933 near Leuven in Belgium. In 1950, he enrolled to study architecture at the Sint-Lukas School in Brussels but left a year later without a degree. Though not officially an architect, Raymaekers proceeded to design around 150 projects, from suburban homes to hotels and music venues – in 1986, he completed the Orlando discotheque, which burned down in 2014 Credit: Roger Dyckmans It was here that Raymaekers would sit – when he was not criss‑crossing Belgium scouting for materials – scoping out clients as they stumbled giddily into his world, overwhelmed by the aspiration and status anxiety that Queen of the South was designed to induce. The project was also a cultural hub attracting misfits and eccentrics, wheelers and dealers, experts and charlatans. The novelist Hugo Claus had his 50th birthday at Queen of the South, honouring Raymaekers in his speech. Raymaekers and his wife Hilde did interviews for newspapers, magazines and TV, often while reclining on their bed. The media was not interested in him as an accomplished architect, but as a purveyor of kitsch, an absurdity.  What Raymaekers had to sell his clients was more than simply antiques or even houses composed of them (buy enough materials and he would design you a house for no charge: that was always the deal). What Raymaekers was really selling were dreams of nobility: the life of a lord and lady of the manor, set apart (and above) from an increasingly modernised, homogenised world. Sensuality and hedonism, expressed through haptic, resplendent materials, was a big part of the allure too – the promise of a new way of life. One of Raymaekers’ bigger projects was a love hotel, Rubensexclusief, near Diest, completed in 1979. Each chamber was bestowed with an excess of padded velvet upholstery, often creeping up the walls and curving onto the ceilings. In the lobby, a salvaged confession booth was intended as a hiding place for guilty parties. Raymaekers brought several clients here to celebrate a successful transaction or to introduce them to his material language before starting design negotiations. His clients were middle‑class professionals – teachers, dentists, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, florists, pharmacists. Wealthy, but not extraordinarily rich. Many of his houses allowed them to live and work – interfacing with the public – on the same property. House Kelchtermans from 1970, for example, designed with architect Jos Witters, is composed of three pyramids – a home, a doctor’s office and a garage – structured with reclaimed oak beams. The roof tiles were salvaged by the client himself, Dr Kelchtermans, who received tips on where to find them from his patients, many of whom were farmers whose buildings were undergoing modernisation or demolition. Inside, it is all split‑levels, enormous fireplaces and complex, spiralling spaces. But the house’s biggest flourish is the skylights: 23 cupolas from decommissioned Lockheed T‑33 fighter jet cockpits. Raymaekers had found them languishing in a salvage yard on the other side of Flanders, saw their architectural potential and persuaded the client to buy them. Client participation was everything. The Boncher family’s house, completed in 1984, is a mash‑up of components from a derelict slaughterhouse in the city of Tienen and an army barracks in Verviers. The Bonchers themselves spent weeks carefully dismantling the bricks, Gobertange white stone and fleur‑de‑lis roof tiles from the slaughterhouse. Raymaekers had the grand entrance and guardhouses from the barracks available in his stock at Queen of the South, probably at a time‑sensitive discount. Many of the construction and final design decisions for House Boncher were left to happenstance; as the contractors built the walls up row‑by‑row, whenever a hole was needed for a window, Raymaekers would decide the dimensions only at that moment, based on whatever blue limestone window frame he happened to have in stock. Occasionally, the masons had to deconstruct part of a wall if a larger‑than‑anticipated window became available.  ‘Raymaekers’ houses are intelligent, instinctive assemblages of unpredictable material streams’ The interior, too, required improvisation. A white stone staircase, salvaged from a church pulpit, was meant to spiral up to the main bedroom of House Boncher but turned out to be about 200mm too short. The solution? Raymaekers and the contractors decided to build a hefty bump into the floor, consisting of cobbles and decorative tiling. It gave the staircase the necessary boost to reach up to the bedroom. It was typical of how designing exclusively with old materials required Raymaekers to empower and trust his contractors. Their design contributions, extemporisation and management of materials and how they might fit together were intrinsic to the realisation of every project. Working with large batches helped simplify matters – or allowed further complexity. When the Antwerp townhouse of art nouveau architect Joseph Bascourt was demolished to make way for the extension of a car park, Raymaekers snapped up the facade. Without knowing or caring how the pieces were originally composed, Raymaekers shuffled them into a new configuration for the facade of a flower shop a client had commissioned in the Brussels hinterland, completed in 1987. Raymaekers moved Bascourt’s decorative entablature from the top of the facade down to eye level, the better to be enjoyed; that this meant the windows on the top floor would now poke strangely above the roofline was fine with both Raymaekers and the client. The shreds of Raymaekers’ reputation that survive today, and what can be retrieved and reconstructed of his private and professional habits, are complex at best. His charisma and determination enabled him to convince artisans, contractors, labourers and clients to stretch themselves beyond what they thought possible, adding their own talent to his difficult buildings. But Raymaekers could also be intimidating and domineering. Collaborators often stepped away from his all‑consuming process; clients who considered him too pushy and found themselves running out of money could cease working with him. But this was not the case for his spouses, sons, grandchildren and daughters‑in‑law. They were bound to him by more than his business practice and art, and some of them suffered enduring and even unbearable distress. Their suffering is the shadow behind Raymaekers’ work. When researchers from Belgian design practice Rotor and the University of Ghent – also the authors of this article – started showing up at Queen of the South in 2011, it was not because of Raymaekers’ reputation; it was merely to include Queen of the South on Opalis’s database, a roster of salvage dealers covering much of north‑western Europe. We only realised the extent and importance of his work after several years and at least three visits. Raymaekers had refused all interviews since his bankruptcy, but after some persuasion, a meeting was scheduled in the courtyard on a grey winter day. Triggered by newspaper cuttings, his own limited archive of photographs and strolls through the stock, a picture emerged of the rich reuse ecosystem in which he was active in his glory days. It is this ecosystem, along with the remarkable and necessary fluidity of Raymaekers’ practice with old building materials, that was critical to his success. Belgium was blessed in the postwar period with a remarkably robust network of demolition contractors who were also salvage dealers, antiques dealers who were also designers, industrial scrapyards willing to let architects pick through their mountains of waste. The landscape was ripe for reuse. So was the legislative field. Raymaekers’ oeuvre could be mistaken, at a cursory glance, for just more Ugly Belgian Houses (several of them have indeed appeared on Hannes Coudenys’ infamous blog). His houses appear to be kitsch, chaotic, brazen, overstuffed with mixed metaphors. But they are much more than that. They are intelligent, instinctive assemblages of unpredictable material streams. They are bracing, never boring. And though they are wildly out‑of‑step with today’s tastes, the houses – and moreover, the kind of innovative practice that built them – have a lot to teach spatial practitioners about reusing architectural materials and circularity in the construction industry. And as with any of those so‑called ‘ugly’ Belgian houses, the label is a trivialisation (and an elitist one) of something systemic and generative. What makes possible such expressionistic and characterful suburban houses in Belgium – whatever one thinks of their quality – is government policy since the postwar era. While other European countries went all in on standardised social housing, in Belgium, the 1948 De Taeye Law offered construction grants and a state guarantee on mortgages, triggering families to initiate, help design and sometimes even execute the construction of their own homes, tapping into a rural tradition of self‑reliance. Raymaekers worked at a time when modernisation – and the demolition it demanded – was churning out a constant flow of antique materials. It was also a time when the merger and exchange of roles in the architectural process – from material procurement, to design and collaboration live on site – was still possible. Material reuse today is much harder. It must work precisely against the linear flows of extraction, capital, efficiency and predictability – all supercharged by the digital and its requirement of an almost omniscient predictability, and by increasingly demanding rules around compliance and liability. But to explore the wild potential of material reuse – not just to reduce embodied carbon, but to unleash new design potential and a richer culture around material (heritage) and practice – it must be possible to imagine ways in which material procurement, construction sites and the architects’ role can change fundamentally again.  Illustration: Laslo Antal for The Architectural Review. Read more about the process of making this portrait here 2025-05-15 Justinien Tribillon Share AR May 2025CircularityBuy Now

News Avatar: Braving the Elements Podcast Teases Korra Revelations in Season 4 Trailer Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender rewatch podcast is set to provide a behind the scenes look at The Legend of Korra. By Alec Bojalad | May 13, 2025 | | Photo: Nickelodeon Through three seasons and well over 100 episodes, Avatar: The Last Airbender companion podcast Avatar: Braving the Elements has faithfully recapped episodes of and expanded upon the lore for the all-time classic Nickelodeon animated series. Since the show finished covering The Last Airbender‘s third and final season last October, however, it’s been radio (or podcast) silent. After all, three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the TV show, means three seasons of Avatar: Braving the Elements, the podcast, right? Well, in the immortal words of Lee Corso: not so fast, my friend! Nickelodeon has now announced a May 20 release date for Avatar: Braving the Elements season 4, which will begin to delve into Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s first sequel Avatar: The Legend of Korra. Of course, Avatar: Braving the Elements moving on to Avatar: The Legend of Korra was always a part of the podcast’s long-term plan, as evidenced by the fact that Korra herself, Janet Varney, serves as the show’s co-host alongside Dante Basco. What fans couldn’t have fully anticipated though, is the lineup of Avatar stars, fans, and other luminaries that make up the guest list of this new season. Check them out below in the first trailer for Avatar: Braving the Elements season 4. The season’s first episode will feature Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko as they set the table for the four “books” of Korra to come. After that, things go in some pretty unexpected directions with Minnesota Twins pitcher Pablo López (who is boasting an impressive 2.18 Earned Run Average at press time) joining the discussion. Other guests include: Zach Tyler Eisen (voice of Aang), Steve Blum (voice of Amon), Mindy Sterling (voiced of Lin Beifong), Mick Foley (voice of the Boulder), Seychelle Gabriel (voice of Asami), Jeremy Zuckerman (music composer), Joaquim Dos Santos (director), Levon Hawke (Blink Twice, Avatarverse superfan), Maya Hawke (Stranger Things, Avatarverse superfan), and of course: the legendary cabbage merchant James Sie. While Varney should undoubtedly have a lot of compelling behind-the-scenes tidbits to share this time around, don’t sleep on Basco’s ability to crack the Korra code. The Zuko voice actor didn’t return for the sequel (with a more age-appropriate Bruce Davison taking over the role) and as such has not seen The Legend of Korra. It looks like the show will put that virginal status to good use, breaking out a “FORESHADOW REPORT” every time Basco stumbles upon something prophetic. Avatar: Braving the Elements season 4 premieres May 20 and will rollout weekly with video episodes on YouTube and audio episodes wherever podcasts are available. There is no word on how long this season will run but before you know it, Braving the Elements will be ready for its Seven Havens’ era.