This text explores the work of 51N4E, a Brussels-based architectural practice.

"The architectural offices 51N4E and Rural Urban Framework operate at the seams of urbanization, with projects situated in transitional settlements in Ulaanbaatar, in the new vernacular of rural China, in the transforming centres of Western European cities and in Albania's shifting public spaces. Comparing their research and design processes, The Things Around Us questions the extents and certainties of architecture against backdrops of unstable planetary urbanization, insecure economies and ecologies, and indeterminate notions of citizenship."--Page 4 de la couverture

This publication shows the ambitious transformation of Skanderbeg Square, in Tirana, Albania. The project was initiated by the then Mayor of Tirana and current Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama and realized under current mayor Erion Veliaj. It is the result of a collaboration between Belgian architecture office 51N4E, Albanian artist Anri Sala, Belgian environmental designers Plant en Houtgoed, and Albanian company for project implementation iRI. Transforming the central square of a nation that is founded only in 1912 and that is now a developing young democracy, the project compresses all the hope and tension that come with that transition. With its focus on transition, this publication is a pilot episode of a series called Chapters, a progressive documentation of the work of architecture office 51N4E and its collaborations with related people and practices. Every Chapter combines the presentation of one or more projects with a forward-looking reflection on the key issues that shape them. Produced progressively over the course of the next years, the ambition of the whole series is to outline how 51N4E aims to engage with contemporary society in all of its complexity.

Reasons for walling a house' is a book about the unusual transformation of a small single family house by the Belgian architecture firm 51N4E. A couple living in a single family house on the Belgian countryside wanted to have 'more space'. But, instead, the architects that they hired enclosed their small house with a three-meter-tall steel wall. This paradoxical transformation challenged the owners to rethink their ideas of a home. Upon the project's completion they decided to open up their residence as a guest house for artists, designers, writers, and thinkers. Each person invited would receive a carte blanche, a fridge full of food, and the opportunity to have the run of the house without its inhabitants. Reasons for Walling a House unravels the secrets of an unlikely transformation, seen through the eyes of the first seven guests-the artists Enrique Marty and Dirk Braeckman, theater director and actor Josse de Pauw graphic designers Something Fantastic, as well as the architects Andrea Branzi, BeL and 51N4E.

Brussels-based 51N4E deals with matters of architectural design, concept development, and strategic spatial transformations. Headed by Johan Anrys and Freek Persyn, the office was founded in 1998 and aspires to contribute to social and urban transformation. This book - part photo-novel, part real-life journey - tells the story of 51N4E in multiple ways. Combining short stories by Falma Fshazi with photographs by Stefano Graziani, it is a narrative of discovery and embracing otherness, as well as a retrospective look at projects since 2004. It describes the encounters and processes by which the architects learned to operate in a culture and context very different from their own.

-Conversion as an environmentally friendly alternative to new buildings -The new standard reference work in the field -Presentation and illustration of 30 pioneering case studies Conversion, adaptation, reuse - these techniques are as old as construction itself. However, since the industrialization of the building industry and the emergence of modernism in architecture, newly constructed buildings have dominated our idea of good and progressive architecture. For decades, conversion did not play a significant role in architectural practice. Today, things have changed. The industrialization of the construction industry has led to environmental degradation, and the reform potential of modernism has been exhausted. Consequently, the existing building stock is one of the resources - perhaps even the most important resource - for the transformation of our cities. Against this backdrop, the architecture of conversion has made an unexpected comeback. Young architects in particular are providing surprising answers to the environmental and social questions of our time with their conversion projects. This book introduces 30 examples that illustrate how seemingly everyday conversions can be turned into groundbreaking architecture, while eight essays shed light on the important role of conversion in history and the theory of architecture. With contributions by 51N4E, Arno Brandlhuber, Assemble, BeL, Bovenbouw, Christoph Grafe, Lacaton & Vasall, NL Architects, noA architecten, Muck Petzet, Tim Rieniets, de Vylder Vinck Tailieu, and many others.