Sophia Holst

Sophia (Geldrop, 1988) obtained a Bachelor and Masters in Fine Art at the Rietveld Academy / Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, where she developed an interest in sculptural and architectural work in an everyday context.

To enter the field of architecture she worked between 2013 and 2015 for Studio Anne Holtrop. During this period she took theoretical and technical courses at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. Recently Sophia Holst graduated Suma Cum Laude from the International Masters in Architecture (Urban Projects and Urban Cultures) at the KU Leuven Sint-Lucas in Brussels, where she wrote her dissertation on open, common and creative spaces within the old context of the changing urban environment of (Post-Soviet) Vilnius, Lithuania. Next to her freelance work for NU architectuuratelier in Gent, she is currently working on her own practice based in Brussels, existing between the architectural and artsitic. With a critical eye on the current urban debate, she now works on her project Brussels Common Spaces (un)Designed - supported by the FORMAT 2019 program of Z33 - in which she is in search to portray the value of the often ‘un-designed’ and self appropriated common spaces of Brussels.

Research areas: social (and a-social) dynamics in urban context, urban development, artistic and creative practices, politics of daily life