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.
EXHIBITION
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.
28.04.2021 - 26.09.2021
read moreOPENING
Join us on 6 May for the online opening of the exhibition LUC DELEU & T.O.P. office FUTURE PLANS 1970-2020. Joris Vergeyle (journalist, VRT NWS) will be visiting the exhibition and talking 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. Register and receive a link to the exclusive YouTube premiere on the day of the launch.
06.05.2021
more informationBOOK
The book Luc Deleu & T.O.P. office: Future Plans 1970–2020 is a unique document from an exceptionally idiosyncratic design practice. The publication not only offers a clear overview of projects from the past 50 years, it also presents archival material that has never been shown.
out now
read moreARCHIVE PRESENTATION
As a prelude to the exhibtion LUC DELEU & T.O.P. office FUTURE PLANS 1970-2020 an archive presentation with work of T.O.P. office is on showcase at M HKA. Using archival material including models, photographs, clippings, designs and plans, we are given a unique insight into the creation, development and realisation of several striking buildings
13.02.2021 - 25.04.2021
read moreCOLLECTION HIGHLIGHT
The T.O.P. office archive contains 15,000 photographic slides by Luc Deleu, a resource that he’s been creating since he graduated from the Hoger Instituut Sint-Lucas Brussels in 1969. As part of the FUTURE PLANS project, the Flanders Architecture Institute digitised the entire collection in 2020. The visual material provides an insight into the themes, sources of inspiration and obsessions that are present in T.O.P. office’s artistic oeuvre. For Deleu, photography is not just a way of capturing his surroundings; he uses the medium as a fundamental object of research. He arranges his collection meticulously and chronologically, right down to the hour and the minute. This page shows a selection of photos that testify to the unique perspective with which Deleu observes and records the world around him.
deSingel, Argos, M HKA, De Veerman, KU Leuven, CIVA, Stad Antwerpen, CRIT. en T.O.P. office
