In the summer of 2017, we provided a living support structure on top of a former mining site in Genk, serving as a base for a social and experimental laboratory. The era of mining and the presence of the Ford company gave strong identities to the city of Genk. We intervened at a moment when the search for a new, strong identity allowed for experimentation and reflection on visions of the future.

A support structure is a building tool that stabilizes a construction during its assembly—also used in mining to reach the deepest tunnels. In the same sense, it functions metaphorically as a social, artistic, and community-shaping tool: a support and catalyst in the early phases of appropriation. In connection with the research activities already underway and being developed at Thor Park, we propose an applied research laboratory that sits between artistic experimentation and public research. It positions itself as a complementary approach to academic scientific models, exploring new technologies in an accessible and associative way.

These moments are captured in a tangible object: a generic brick that we design and produce together from waste materials. The brick, as a memory of our shared time at Thor Park, becomes both the building block for the new entrance gate to the park and a prototype material that may enter the existing Belgian brick market. The attempt to produce a monumental arch from this collective effort raises the question: could this moment mark a paradigm shift—from a belief in efficiency and productivity to smaller-scale, transparent urban production that embraces deviation and allows for change?