MEDS Workshop 2026

Her yıl farklı bir ülkede gerçekleşen uluslararası yaz okulu “Meetings of Design Students” Workshop, bu yıl 1 - 16 Ağustos tarihleri arasında Belçika'da gerçekleşecek.

What is MEDS?

The MEDS Workshop format is an immersive, hands-on experience where students within the broad discipline of architecture, design, and other creative flows unite to shape ideas into reality.

Hosted in a new country each edition, MEDS Workshop blends cultural exploration, interdisciplinary collaboration and practical projects. Over the course of two weeks, participants engage in bold, site-specific projects that leave a lasting impact on both the location and the creative community.

What is a MEDS Workshop?

MEDS Workshop is both practical and educational because it focuses not only on creative, theoretical designs, but actually compels their execution during the 2-week span of the workshop.

Goals:

• Promoting city development and local communities

• Helping designers make social and professional connections

• Dealing with modern urban challenges through international perspectives

• Unlocking potential of students and young professionals

• Creating sustainable proposals

Who is A Participant?

• Curiosity and enthusiasm are the main features that characterize a MEDS participant

• Young people originating from different countries, academic and professional disciplines but united by a creative mindset

• The essence of MEDS Workshop

• We come together with one common passion: our love for design, learning and sharing knowledge

At the beginning of each workshop, participants select three potential projects that they want to join and are selected though an unbiased method.

Together and in co-creation with their tutor(s) the next days, each team will design, create, develop (and build) their projects together.

Reweaving the Brussels Canal District

Brussels, Kuregem, shaped by its industrial roots and evolving present, is a neighborhood defined by transformation. Its textures emerge from the meeting of factories and homes, migration and memory, resilience and reinvention, forming a layered urban landscape in constant change.

This year’s theme, “Reweaving the Brussels Canal District”, revolves around four core narratives that will allow the exploration of a truly fascinating area of the capital of Belgium:

• Landscape of Transformations

• Urban Fabrics

• Node of Flows

• Encounters and Layered Voi

Kuregem is a place where progress and innovation have long been tied to production: from cotton factories and slaughterhouses to workshops and warehouses. Its industrial legacy endures in brick halls, iron structures, and worn surfaces that tell stories of labor and migration. Today, these gritty textures offer space for reflection, renewal, and new possibilities, allowing past infrastructures to be reimagined and transformed into drivers of community life and future development.

We must remember that MEDS is not only about the outcome of the workshop projects, it is a lot more than that. During this unforgettable experience you will meet new people with many common passions, build lasting friendships with people from all over the world, develop invaluable skills, such as communication, respect and tolerance. You will also learn a lot about Brussels and Belgium in an uncommon, local way.

Timeline

­February 2026

09.02 – 01.03.2026: First wave participant call
16.02 – 16.03.2026: Tutor call

March 2026

08.03 – 18.03.2026: Notification of accepted participants (first wave)

April 2026

06.04 – 26.04.2026: Second wave participant call
20.04.2026: Notification of selected tutors
27.04 – 13.05.2026: Notification of accepted participants (second wave)

July 2026

29.07 – 31.07.2026: Arrival of Tutors / Tutor Camp

August 2026

01.08 – 16.08.2026: MEDS Workshop

Participation Fee

­­­Participation Fee: 400€

Included:

• accommodation
• 2 meals per day: breakfast made in hostel by MEDS; dinner provided by a local catering company
• participation in workshop project: all tools and materials are provided
• welcome goodie bag

Not Included:

• transport to and from Brussels
• excursion
• lunch

To apply as a participant, you need to fill out the Google form: https://forms.gle/8Mn63QNHt4xbd5fj8