On the occasion of his solo exhibition Tracking Habits (8 July – 30 September 2025), Arnaud Eubelen sat down at Side Gallery to reflect on his design philosophy, creative methodology, and the ideas behind his latest body of work. Raised in the post-industrial landscape of Liège and based in Brussels, Eubelen draws deeply from the material culture of the urban environment, assembling sculptural objects from elements he sources within a one-kilometer radius of his studio in Molenbeek. Steel tubes, fragments of glass, aluminum panels, discarded plastics—these are not just materials, but witnesses to a city's rhythms, its habits, and its discarded narratives.

For Tracking Habits, Eubelen transformed the gallery into a kind of dollhouse or urban stage, organizing the space into five distinct scenes. Each installation evokes everyday gestures—welcoming, reading, hiding, conversing—and crystallizes them in a constellation of hybrid furniture forms. “I was inspired by the gestures we make in our homes,” he explains, “and tried to give them shape through objects.”

His designs resist mass production, but they are not singular for singularity’s sake. Many pieces are conceived as frameworks—skeletal systems capable of accepting new materials and reinterpretation over time. Assemblies are executed with screws and bolts, allowing the objects to be disassembled and reconfigured, even decades later. “I like the idea that in a hundred years, a piece could simply return to its raw materials,” he notes.

Eubelen’s approach celebrates imperfection, transparency, and structural honesty. Scratches, inscriptions, and traces of prior use are preserved rather than concealed, giving each object a unique resonance. Comfort, he insists, must coexist with constraint. His designs often include sharp angles or raw finishes, reminding users to be present with the objects and aware of their gestures.

The interview offers a nuanced portrait of a designer who sees the city not only as a place to live, but as an active archive of possibilities—where form follows gesture, and where the street becomes a source of both inspiration and matter.