For Future Plans 1970-2020, curators Peter Swinnen and Anne Judong enjoyed nine months of unlimited access to the archives of T.O.P. office. The title also serves as the filter through which to explore the living archive. Which projects, whether conceived in the 1970s or 2000s, hold the intelligent promise of a future plan? And how can they ignite the designers, architects, urban designers, ecologists, lawyers, administrations and policy makers of today and tomorrow? A future plan in itself.
LUC DELEU & T.O.P. office
For half a century, Luc Deleu & T.O.P. office has served as the seedbed for this striking exhibition. When architect and artist Luc Deleu and his wife Laurette Gillemot founded T.O.P. office in 1970, they were acutely aware of the social power of architecture, but also of the art and urgency of harnessing it. Architecture as an uncompromising tool for highlighting the scale of the world and persistently calling it into question. Armed with a merciless but humorous logic, a firm belief in the freedom of the individual and a far-reaching concern for ecology, T.O.P. office continues to hold up a mirror to citizens and politicians. Always uninvited. Quite simply, because it is necessary. The fact that the majority of projects will never be built is now beside the point. They exist and stubbornly continue to call attention to the vital issues.
Download the exhibition guide
Opening event
06.05.2021 at 20:00 h
On 6 May VAi organised the online opening of the exhibition. Joris Vergeyle (journalist VRT NWS) visited the exhibition and talked to a number of prominent figures about T.O.P. office. Discover the story behind some of the key works in the Deleu and T.O.P. office oeuvre, with Joris as your guide.
"I never quite understood why you would first have to wait for a question before formulating an architectural answer."‐ Luc Deleu
Practical
- DATE:
28.04.2021-26.09.2021
- OPEN:
From Wednesday to Sunday - 02:00 pm until 7:00 pm and during evening performances until 10:00 pm
- OPENING:
06.05.2021 at 8:00 pm on YouTube
- ADMISSION:
free
- EXHIBITION GUIDE:
- LOCATION:
De Singel (Expo)
- STREET:
Desguinlei 25
- POSTAL CODE:
2018
- CITY:
Antwerp
- PRODUCER:
Flanders Architecture Institute and De Singel
- CO-PRODUCER:
M HKA and Argos
- CURATOR:
CRIT. / Peter Swinnen & Anne Judong
- SCENOGRAPHY:
CRIT.
- IN COLLABORATION WITH:
T.O.P. office / Isabelle De Smet & Steven Van den Bergh
To make your visit as safe as possible, you must respect the following measures:
* Face masks are mandatory in all public areas of De Singel
* Keep 1.5m away from other visitors at all times
* Payments at the book counter are only done electronically
* Individual online registration for exhibitions in the Expo is mandatory (max. 20 people per time slot)
Future Plans
In 2020–2021 we are celebrating 50 years of unsolicited practice by Luc Deleu & T.O.P. office. To mark this anniversary, the Flanders Architecture Institute, is launching the Future Plans project. The aim is to preserve, continue and disseminate the potential of T.O.P. office’s reflection on society from the perspective of design practice and design education. The project translates concretely into a book, an exhibition and a documentary.