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STAGE 0

BELGIUM

A spatial approach to rest as experience

Stage 0 is a large-scale spatial installation created for Modul’air, a Belgian festival hosting around 20,000 visitors. Conceived as a dedicated “chill-out” environment, the project challenges the conventional idea of rest as a passive or secondary function within festival design, repositioning it instead as an active and essential part of the overall experience.

Rather than separating relaxation from the energy of the event, Stage 0 unfolds as a sequence of spatial atmospheres that gradually shift from intensity to calm. Visitors are guided through a progression of zones where light, sound, and materiality work together to orchestrate movement and perception, leading towards a central space in which rest becomes collective, immersive, and experiential.

At its core, the installation operates at the intersection of scenography, architecture, and spatial storytelling. Light is treated as a structural element, shaping both orientation and emotional response, while sound introduces a rhythmic dimension inspired by the variations of the human heartbeat, subtly guiding visitors through changing intensities.

Stage 0 functions simultaneously as a performative landscape and a usable environment, blurring the line between infrastructure and experience. Beyond its physical presence, the project also contributed to defining the broader scenographic identity of Modul’air, proposing a new way of thinking about non-programmed festival spaces — not as neutral support areas, but as meaningful, atmospheric, and narrative-driven environments.

About the programme

Stage 0 was developed within the Masterclass in Scenography & Spatial Design at Thomas More, based in Mechelen, Belgium.

The programme brings together students from diverse backgrounds — including architecture, interior design, and graphic design — and engages them in real, site-specific projects developed in collaboration with cultural institutions, festivals, and brands.

Through an integrated process combining research, design, and production, the masterclass explores how spatial design can shape perception, influence behaviour, and construct immersive experiences. Each project evolves from concept to full-scale implementation, responding to real-world contexts, constraints, and audiences.

Stage 0 represents one of the outcomes of this programme, developed in close collaboration with the Modul’air team, and marks the first year of the initiative, involving a group of 13 students.