Caring Architecture
Press release
Double exhibition Caring Architecture argues for architecture that cares for both people and planet
Architecture that cares lasts longer
How can architecture care for both our planet and its inhabitants? The exhibitions Critical Care. Architecture for a Broken Planet and Care for Space for Care explore what forms caring architecture can take, and what influence this has on the liveability of our environment. A surprising selection of national and international case studies allows you to familiarise yourself in a unique way with building for – and the buildings of – the future. From 28 May at the Flanders Architecture Institute at De Singel.
Caring Architecture
Critical Care. Architecture for a Broken Planet
Care for Space for Care. Scenes from Flanders and Brussels
Double exhibition | from 28.05.2022 to 11.09.2022
Opening event | on 27.05.2021 at 20:00h
Flanders Architecture Institute in De Singel, Antwerp
Caring Architecture
“Architecture that cares is striking for its empathy towards its context, users, makers and materials. It is an architecture that takes a long-term view and adopts a critical position with regard to human activity on the planet. It keeps an eye on the bigger picture and connects natural, material and immaterial values. Caring architecture consciously considers the effects of interventions in the (built) environment on humans, ecology and society.” With this approach, the curators of the double exhibition clarify the crucial role played by architecture in the liveability of our planet.
"With the crises we know today, people wonder whether change is still possible. The projects in the Critical Care exhibition prove that it is indeed possible."‐ Angelika Fitz, curator Critical Care. Architecture for a Broken Planet
exhibition 1
Critical Care. Architecture for a Broken Planet
Following halts in Vienna, Zürich, Dresden and Berlin, Critical Care. Architecture for a Broken Planet alights in Antwerp. Via twenty-one sensational international projects, the exhibition demonstrates how architecture and urban development can contribute to our future. Projects from Africa, Europe, the Near East, the Caribbean, the US and Latin America are brought together and grouped into five themes: ‘care for water and land’, ‘care for public space’, ‘care for talent’, ‘care for maintenance’, and ‘care for local production’. Each project deals with a specific problem. Whether set in a rural or urban space, all redefine the relationship between work, economics and ecology. Large-scale drawings, objects and videos offer a tactile insight into the design process, the execution and the ultimate usage.
Behind the scenes of Critical Care
projects
Care for Water and Land
- URBANA, the architectural practise of Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury, has renounced costly filling as flood protection at the Friendship Center in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, and works with the water, not against it.
- CICLICA and CAVAA, two architectural collectives from Barcelona, together with the local allotment association, have reactivated the disused Roman irrigation system in Caldes de Montbui, Spain, and made the garden plots accessible to the public.
- ENLACE in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has transformed the land in the immediate vicinity of the Financial District, where the informal settlements are located, into a community land trust and has supported the ecological repair of the Martin Pena Canal in a process of more than 700 consultations over several years.
- Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman are developing cross-border ecological concepts and new ideas of border citizenship for the border area between the USA and Mexico.
- Colectivo 720 transformed huge modernist water storage facilities in Medellin, Colombia, into a safe new public space for disadvantaged neighbourhoods. (image above)
Care for Repair
- Architects de vylder vinck taillieu have created a generous public space for patients, visitors, plants and animals from the ruins of a hospital pavilion in Melle.
- Paulo Mendes da Rocha and MMBB Architekten converted a modernist department store building in São Paulo into a social cultural, sports and health centre that offers naturally ventilated public spaces, with a swimming pool on the roof.
- Lacaton & Vassal with Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin renovated a large-scale modernist residential building, consistently featuring its qualities and adding spacious conservatories and balconies. (image above)
- ZUsammenKUNFT, a broad alliance from civil society together with the city administration and architects at Berlin's Alexanderplatz is transforming the former Haus der Statistik from the GDR period into a public welfare-oriented urban quarter with affordable housing, culture, education and the "Town Hall of Tomorrow".
Care for Skills
- Rural Urban Framework implemented a model project for sustainable village development in cooperation with the local government in Jintai, in the Chinese province of Sichuan, following severe earthquakes and landslides. (image above)
- Architect Yasmeen Lari and her Heritage Foundation are training "barefoot entrepreneurs" to build flood-resistant homes and infrastructure using traditional adobe/mud and bamboo construction techniques. Over 40,000 safe, cost-effective and extremely low-carbon buildings have been constructed since 2012.
- EAHR, Emergency Architecture & Human Rights works with local residents and refugees near the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan to activate traditional construction methods for building schools.
- Anupama Kundoo uses ancient Persian clay building techniques for her volunteer home for homeless children in Pondicherry, where the building itself becomes its own kiln and so a producer of sustainable building materials.
Care for Production
- atelier d'architecture autogérée is working in French cities on the R-Urban Model, networks of eco-civilian bases that rely on closed local loops of consumption and production.
- The Kounkuey Design Initiative is working with grassroots organisations to develop productive public spaces in Kibera, Nairobi, combining environmental concerns, sanitation, local alternative economies and security.
- Architect Anna Heringer, together with fashion designer Veronika Lena and NGO Dipshika, has created the local textile production in the village of Rudrapur in Bangladesh, which reverses trade flows between the global South and the global North: old saris become design products.
- Architect Xu Tiantian has designed a series of coherent interventions for the Songyang district of China to augment rural space, such as the tofu factory in Caizhai, which is a production site, a public space and a tourist attraction all at the same time.
Care for Public Space
- For the planning of Ruskin Square muf architecture/art convinced the private developer of the London borough of Croydon to take public space as the point of departure in the new master plan.
- With the introduction of the Superblock model, the city administration in Barcelona is giving people back their street space, in connection with a 21 percent reduction in private traffic.
- StudioVlayStreeruwitz developed a model for the urban development area at Vienna's Nordbahnhof railway station grounds that is based on what is there rather than a tabula rasa. The Freie Mitte with its urban wilderness is the continuation of natural, cultural and social resources. In 2017, the Care + Repair project curated by Angelika Fitz and Elke Krasny worked with six international architectural teams in tandem with local experts to repair the future for Freie Mitte. The resulting exhibition was the first cultural use of the Nordbahnhalle, part of the three-year research project led by Vienna University of Technology, Mischung: Nordbahnhof.
exhibition 2
Care for Space for Care. Scenes from Flanders and Brussels
The exhibition Care for Space for Care is the Belgian answer to Critical Care. It illuminates nine recent projects from Flanders and Brussels with a focus on the process, those involved and the preliminary research. Care for Space for Care prompts you to consider the ecological and social role of architecture.
Care for Others
Caring about and for others is about empathy, making people included in the project visible, and ensuring their voices are heard. Extending the boundaries of formal participatory models, interdependence reintroduces the personal affairs, emotional labour and humanistic side of spatial production. It is a reminder for us that architecture is by, for and with people.
Projects:
- House Perrekes, Oosterlo by NU Architectuuratelier
- House for Seasonal Neighbours, Borgloon by Ciel Grommen and Maximiliaan Royakkers
- Sporthaven, Mortsel by Import Export Architecture
"The architecture of Huis Perrekes invites you to participate and interact with others. The very walls seem to provide the stimulus."‐ Carla Molenberghs, Co-founder and Director, Huis Perrekes
Care for Materials
Designing buildings that can easily be maintained is also an act of care, a preventive measure. It is a careful design decision to sustain the life of a building with durable materials, precise details and an open design that allows for adaptation and appropriation. A maintenance perspective considers the existing building stock as a crucial resource to be benefitted from as long as possible and aims to extend the lifespan of buildings as much as possible as a sign of respect to nature and its limited material resources as well as to collective urban memory.
Projects:
- Z33, Hasselt by Francesca Torzo
- Le Rideau, Brussels by Ouest
- Actiris, Brussels by Laura Muyldermans & LDSRa
"Taking care of a building starts with listening to the materials and to the various users."‐ Kurt Geraerts, Building Manager and Prevention Adviser Z33
Care for the planet
Posthumanism implies a new understanding of caring for the planet and all beings and materials sharing a common space and future. Posthumanist architecture is a practice of working together with all actors, materials and energies in creating a space that is enjoyed by all.
Projects:
- Ecotron UHasselt, Maasmechelen by NoAarchitects
- Charleroi Grand Hopital landscape design, Charleroi by Bas Smets
- Observation Tower, Dilsen-Stokkem (Negenoord) by De Gouden Liniaal Architecten
"It is less about the eco label that the materials have, and more about the way in which we use them."‐ Jan Thys, Architect and Owner, De Gouden Liniaal Architecten
Press Kit
Download below the full press text and the HR press images.
book
Critical Care: Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet
Focusing on the three crisis areas of economy, ecology, and labor, the book describes projects including village reconstruction in China; irrigation in Spain; community land trust in Puerto Rico; revitalization of modernist public housing in France; new alliances in informal settlements in Nairobi; and the redevelopment of traditional building methods in flood areas in Pakistan. Essays consider such topics as ethical architecture, land policy, creative ecologies, diverse economies, caring communities, and the exploitation of labor. Taken together, these case studies and essays provide evidence that architecture and urbanism have the capacity to make the planet livable, again.
more about the bookCaring Architecture |
Critical CareArchitecture for a Broken Planetconcept exhibition opening event book Care for Space for Care. Scenes from Flanders and Brusselsproduction exhibition opening event |
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