Flanders Architectural Review N°15. Alliances with the Real

Alliances with the Real

Architecture today faces social upheavals that are increasingly difficult to ignore. The demand for housing, changing visions on education, the collective past, open space and new care needs are all themes that are growing more urgent by the day. The hesitant response to these issues puts the (international) success of architecture from Flanders and Brussels into perspective.

Flanders Architectural Review N°15. Alliances with the Real brings together a rich selection of much-discussed recent projects that offer a surprising response to these challenges. Ten essays and two photo series critically reflect upon and hold up a mirror to the architectural field. Alliances with the Real calls for social engagement and social entrepreneurship from all who contribute to the (un)built environment.

Housing in times of crisis

At first glance, architecture in Flanders and Brussels seems to be thriving. There are the global success stories, the selection procedures for public commissions that are the envy of the world and more developers than ever are gravitating towards interesting designers. At the same time, the editorial board of the Flanders Architectural Review N°15 notes the slow response to societal challenges with a spatial dimension. In the aftermath of the pandemic, it was evident that repeated lockdowns had only accentuated social and spatial inequalities. With every passing year, climate change becomes more real. The right to housing is a spiralling challenge for which no adequate solution can be found in policy directives. The Flanders Architectural Review points out that the proliferation of knowledge in the planning field – especially regarding climate change and ‘spatial equality’ – is not filtering through to the practice of architecture in an obvious way.

Architecture as a social contract

The housing issue is a good example. The historical legacy of inadequate spatial planning combined with a government that for decades promoted property acquisition has led to an uneven distribution of housing quality and a bottleneck. As Sofie De Caigny, director of the Flanders Architecture Institute and editor-in-chief of the Flanders Architectural Review, explains: “This negligence is weighing Flanders down as it tackles the climate and housing emergencies. By late 2021, a staggering 182,000 people were waiting for social housing. Furthermore, 37 per cent of the Flemish population live in sub-standard accommodation.” The editorial board of the Flanders Architectural Review not only looked at policies, but also at architects and urban planners. This edition calls upon the entire design community to link social entrepreneurship to the most critical issues facing society today. “Architecture carries the promise of a social contract”, says De Caigny.

Towards a kinder architecture

Empathy and caring are recurrent themes in the book. Many of the projects demonstrate a careful approach towards the pre-existing architecture, one that also extends to materials and site histories; to the housing needs of different generations; to those who fall outside the traditional nuclear family of two-income couples; and to people who might require special care. These are buildings that heed the environment and are habitable in the richest sense of the word.

Ten essays

Following the Flanders Architecture Institute’s call for projects in the summer of 2021, at least two members of the editorial team visited 100 buildings. By talking to users and clients, by experiencing the spaces, by critically examining and touching the materialization, by empirically investigating how the buildings behave in the city, we often reached conclusions that might differ from the view of an assessment panel for an (international) architecture award. Whose critical eyes and ears contributed to this edition?

• Architects Kiki Verbeeck and editor Petrus Kemme consider what empathy and consideration mean in the specialized context of schools and care programme assignments. As with housing, these types of programmes expose both the client’s and the architect’s concept of humanity.
• A very different approach to caring is highlighted in the text by Sofie De Caigny, who explores how architecture can engage in a conscientious and meaningful dialogue with monuments that embody collective memory.
• Lecturer Mark Pimlott, in his essay ‘The Pursuit of Imagery’, challenges the typical visual language of architecture from Flanders and sees that it is often inconsistent with actual experience.
• Architect and lecturer Martino Tattara puts some major urban renewal operations under the magnifying glass and casts a critical eye on new housing construction in Flanders.
• The texts by researcher Marleen Goethals and engineer-architect Marc Martens expand on the theme of urban renewal, approaching it via successful examples as well as from a historical perspective, respectively.
• In her essay, architect Hülya Ertas alludes to a real cultural revolution, from new construction to building on what already exists. She explores this theme through three example projects.
• Architect and social entrepreneur Maarten Desmet looks at how designers develop innovative practices that challenge, test and redeploy the role and mission of architecture. He presents a sampling of socially innovative practices in Flanders and Brussels.
• In her essay ‘Designing for an Open City’, architect and urban planner Livia de Bethune assesses existing projects and examines how we can move towards a city in which open spaces are filled more flexibly. The global pandemic and accompanying lockdowns have made this an increasingly urgent issue.

Two photo series

Photographers Sepideh Farvardin and Miles Fischler were invited to take a personal look at how architecture is used and appropriated, and to produce a series of images. In so doing, they provide a visual form of architectural criticism.

About the Flanders Architectural Review

The Flanders Architectural Review is a biennial publication. It has been a barometer for architecture in and from Flanders and Brussels ever since its launch in 1994. For the fifteenth edition, the editors visited buildings, talked to clients and users, and studied numerous plans. In addition to the essays and photo series, this intensive process led to a selection of some 50 projects that are illuminated via project texts and extensive photography.