I am Michiel De Houwer, a 27-year-old architect. I grew up in a village called Averbode, located in the Flemish part of Belgium. Ever since I can remember, I have been passionate about architecture. As a little boy, I would walk around my neighborhood to find construction sites and watch houses rising up from the ground. When I started my architecture degree, I did not have much knowledge of how architects design buildings. However, I found it important to have my own opinions of architecture. I discovered my own personality and sense of style during my first years of architecture school.

During my studies, I traveled regularly to the United States because of strong ties I developed there. This had a major influence on my work. It caused me to develop my sense of style based on buildings I studied in American cities such as New York, Chicago and Washington, DC. There is a big difference between the culture I grew up in and the culture of the American cities I have visited. I was raised as a village kid. I had never been to any big cities before starting architecture school, my parents never liked cities, and I grew up instilled with their view that living a quality life in a city is impossible. Spending so much time in American cities changed my view of cities completely. Large cities are much livelier than the village where I was raised – people go out more to restaurants for dinner and cook less at home, people enjoy nightlife, are more fashionable and much more “out and about” than in rural areas. In my youth, I also always thought that newer is better, but now I see the importance of tradition and think the old should be respected, but improved upon. This philosophy has resulted in my interest in adaptive reuse. In my eyes, adaptive reuse will form the basis of the future of architecture. 

Urbanism has formed an important part of my education and served as an inspiration for my master’s thesis, which questions how we can retrofit suburban landscapes using transportation strategies. The relationship between mobility, livable cities, urbanism, and architecture has become my passion. Through my work, I will strive to ensure that public spaces are accessible to all people. I believe all neighborhoods should have parks and green spaces, adequate bicycle lanes, decent sidewalks, and access to public transit.

I am still developing as an architect, but because of the different environments in which I have been spending my time, I am finding my personality.

- Michiel De Houwer