RE-PRACTICE RE-VISIT RE-TURN

Back from Japan

In spring 2020, the Flanders Architecture Institute is focusing on the link between Japan and Flanders/Brussels. RE-PRACTICE RE-VISIT RE-TURN from architecten de vylder vinck taillieuis the first exhibition of a season that has been given the baseline ‘Back from Japan’. For the renowned architectural firm from Ghent, their Japanese adventure was an opportunity to position architecture from here in a wider perspective: how is architecture perceived in a changed social and spatial reality? Which elements are retained, and what adjustments does the specific context demand?

Toto Gallery MA, Tokio

In late 2019, architecten de vylder vinck taillieu were invited by Toto Gallery MA to present their work in Tokyo. The firm took advantage of this invitation by setting up research into the similarities and differences in the Japanese and Flemish approaches to architecture. In collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technology, they organised design-based research. But instead of calling it ‘re-search’, they dubbed it ‘re-practice’. The projects by de vylder vinck taillieu are modelled and reinterpreted in a fresh context.

RE-PRACTICE RE-VISIT RE-TURN showcases the design-based research in Tokyo: eleven projects by architecten de vylder vinck taillieu are given a fresh meaning in a Japanese context, as eleven Japanese mirror images. The same methodology was deployed in the world cities of London, Copenhagen and Istanbul. While the exhibition was running in Tokyo, these international design studios worked on projects by a variety of designers from Flanders and Brussels, including Juliaan Lampens, Jos Vandriessche, 51N4E, Office Kersten Geerts David Van Severen, Bob Van Reeth, Marie-José Van Hee and others. This once again resulted in mirror-images. At deSingel, the Flanders Architecture Institute is therefore exhibiting a series of ensembles that reinterpret architecture from Flanders and Brussels in different social and spatial contexts.