In the summer of 2017, we set up a living support structure on a former mining site in Genk, serving as a base for a social and experimental laboratory. The mining era and the presence of the Ford company have strongly shaped the city of Genk. The project emerged at a moment when the search for a new, strong identity allowed for experimentation and reflection on future visions.

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 spirit, it acts 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 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 collaborative 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?