In the spring of 2022, the young architecture office Generiek will be the first to participate in Table Setting. In this new exhibition series, young designers from Flanders and Brussels take their position on the square in front of De Singel, using a set of display tables and accompanying attributes. In Table Setting #1, Generiek investigates the relationship between greenery and domesticity. The result is an exhibition and an installation, in collaboration with textile designer Sofie Van Aelbroeck.
Table Setting #1 explores the subjective relationship between greenery and domesticity. A well-maintained garden or lawn in a (sub)urban context often reveals a household’s social status. Within a domestic context, nature is more than a simple piece of greenery, it is laden with a symbolic narrative. These individualised natural landscapes are artificial. They are carefully modelled, the personal ideals of what an earthly paradise might look like.
Generiek’s exhibition and installation question these individualised pieces of nature. A patch of grass functions as a relaxation area, set against a background of printed and stitched textiles. A wall of stacked tables forms the exhibition framework and functions as a support for the fabric. The central question is: “What role does architecture play in the subjectivisation of gardens?”
"In the end gardens are not natural. With this installation we want to make explicit the subjective way people look at greenery today"‐ Richard Leung, architect (Generiek)
Generiek is an architectural office based in Ghent (BE) and Shanghai (CN). It was founded in 2016 by Lorenz Adriaens (1988-2021), Lando De Keyzer and Richard Leung. Generiek’s projects adopt a generic grammar of typologies and techniques as a guide to claim and create spaces from specific contexts. Working at different scales – from furniture to urban and territorial planning – Generiek uses these projects as a means of observing and interrogating how the built environment affects our way of life and vice versa. Theory and research are therefore a core aspect of the methodology with which Generiek works. This rigorous thought process is accompanied by active involvement as critics and judges at universities around the world.
Sofie Van Aelbroeck is a textile designer based in Ghent (BE). Her studio’s main interest is the creation of contemporary textile objects by deconstructing and reassembling found materials.
"As architects we strive to design and use greenery in a more collective manner. We hope that the people who visit the exhibition will appropriate the green space we’ve created on the square of De Singel"‐ Lando De Keyzer, architect (Generiek)
31.03.2022
On March 31, we will open the exhibition Table Setting #1. Generiek. After an introductory lecture by the designers, we inaugurate the exhibition with a reception on the square at the main entrance in front of De Singel.
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Table Setting is the new exhibition series for young architects in Flanders and Brussels of the Flemish Architecture Institute and De Singel. It is the next stage within a tradition of young architecture in De Singel. Established names have found a platform to show their early oeuvre since the 1980s ('Young Architecture in Belgium' in 1988 and '35m³ of young architecture' in 2005). Even today, young architects are challenged to determine their own position in relation to the discipline, complex spatial situations and social issues. The forecourt of De Singel depicts the cacophony in which young architects start their own practice. The multiform boundaries of the asphalt plain form the perfect backdrop for the exhibition series. Every architect who exhibits there has a set of tables with attributes, designed by Laura Muyldermans. The tables are not only an installation in which the designers show their work, but also challenge them to take a spatial position on the forecourt.
01.04.2022 - 12.06.2022
31.03.2022
More information
From Monday to Sunday, 24/24
free
De Singel (square at the main entrance)
Desguinlei 25
2018
Antwerp
Generiek
Sofie Van Aelbroeck
Petrus Kemme
Laura Muyldermans
Flanders Architecture Institute and De Singel
the Flemish Community
