Van 5 tot 7 september 2023 organiseren het Vlaams Architectuurinstituut en de Universiteit Hasselt het colloquium As Found: Experiments in Preservation. Het colloquium richt zich op ontwerpers, onderzoekers en studenten met een focus op concepten en praktijken die ingrijpen in de bestaande gebouwde omgeving, oftewel 'as found architecture'.
Tot 10 juli kan je tegen een early-bird verlaagd tarief registreren.
The work of architects nowadays increasingly consists of intervening in already existing buildings or (urban) structures. The modern dichotomy between architecture and historic preservation, with the former concentrating primarily on the design of new buildings and the latter on the restoration of existing buildings in a state of the past, seems to have given way to a new approach today.
A more experimental approach in which the narratives and traces found in the existing are the inspiration for contemporary interventions. This changing approach to the built environment - the 'heritage' in the broadest sense - has also been extensively addressed in architectural and academic research.
This session explores experimental spatial strategies for existing buildings.
Architects are increasingly interested in adaptive reuse, challenging traditional conservation principles.
We will address questions such as the relationship between interior and exterior, the meaning of emptiness, and the role of removal in preserving heritage. We seek new approaches to question conventional practices and present a range of experiments.
Remodelling historical sites changes initial meanings and introduces new narratives. Architects seek to enter into a dialogue with the past on formal and conceptual grounds. Are architects like translators who transfer the meaning from an existing structure into a new one?
However, dealing with ambiguous or controversial histories and immaterial heritage raises questions. How do we document and secure immaterial dimensions, and whose values are taken care of?
Historical buildings are affordable and flexible but lose affordability and current uses during transformation. How can we develop adaptive reuse strategies to keep current functions and local community value?
This session explores all forms of existing use, including resistance and formal involvement in planning. Presentations can also explore developer perspectives to understand why existing programs rarely survive and examine needed incentives for change.
This session explores how architectural education has embraced notions of reuse and sustainability, seeking contributions through case studies.
Authors are invited to critically analyze pedagogical tools and methods for reading the built environment and consider how adaptive reuse can meet increasing demands for educational spaces. They can also examine how existing frameworks and structures impact curriculum formation and educational processes.
The opening event (5 September 2023) of the colloquium will take place in DE SINGEL in Antwerp, at the location of the Flanders Architectural Institute (VAi). This event will include a visit to the exhibition As Found and a opening lecture by Anne Lacaton.
The following two days (6 & 7 September 2023) will take place in Hasselt, in a former prison that has been converted for the faculty of law of Hasselt University.
Opening Lecture 'As Found' by Anne Lacton.
“Demolishing is a decision of easiness and short term. It is a waste of many things – a waste of energy, a waste of material, and a waste of history. Moreover, it has a very negative social impact. For us, it is an act of violence.” Anne Lacaton
The work of Parisian architecture practice Lacaton & Vassal illustrates the experimental handling of existing buildings like no other. The studio prefers renovation to destruction, giving a second life to existing buildings. This caring design attitude is already evident in their early work. They maintain it in all the commissions they have since completed. From cultural buildings like the Palais de Tokyo cultural centre in Paris to their large-scale approach to post-war social housing. Everywhere, they work with attention to the cost-effective use of materials and building techniques. The user's well-being and quality of life are the central focus at all times.
In 2021, Lacaton & Vassal received the prestigious international Pritzker Architecture Prize. The jury praises their 'restorative architecture'.
“…never demolish what could be redeemed and instead, make sustainable what already exists, thereby extending through addition, respecting the luxury of simplicity and proposing new possibilities.” Anne Lacaton en Jean-Philippe Vassal, The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2021.
Anne Lacaton was born in France in 1955. Graduated from the School of Architecture of Bordeaux in 1980. Diploma in Urban Planning at the university of Bordeaux in 1984. Professor at ETH Zurich since 2017. Visiting professor at the University of Madrid, Master Housing since 2007, at EPFL Lausanne, 2004, 2006, 2010-11 and 2017, at the University of Florida: Ivan Smith Studio in 2012, at theUniversity of NY-Buffalo: Clarkson Chair in 2013, at the Pavillon Neuflize OBC-Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in 2013-2014, at Harvard GSD: Kenzo Tange 2011 & Design critic 2015, at Sassari University in Alghero 2014 & 2015, at TU Delft, sem 2016-17.
05.09.2023 - 20:00h
DE SINGEL
Desguinlei 25, 2018 Antwerp
Keynote Lecture “As Found 02: Towards Sustainable Design Futures” by Markus Berger.
Markus Berger is Professor of Interior Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), a registered architect (SBA) in the Netherlands and founder and director of The Repair Atelier: an art/design workshop that investigates and activates ideas of reuse. His work, research, writing, and teaching are a critique on the ethics of modern architecture and focus on forms of change and repair in art, architecture, and design. Berger co-founded Int|AR, the Journal on Interventions and Adaptive Reuse. His latest co-edited books are: Intervention and Adaptive Reuse: A Decade of Responsible Practice, (Berger, Wong), Birkhauser, 2021; and Repair: Sustainable Design Futures, (Berger, Irvin), Routledge, 2023.
06.09.2023 - 16:30h
UHasselt, Old prison
Martelarenlaan 42, 3500 Hasselt
Keynote Lecture “Re-Thinking Preservation; the Shoemaker and the Cobbler” by Thordis Arrhenius
In the urgent context of climate change preservation has won a new relevance for architecture that goes far beyond saving a canon of buildings. This lecture will reflect on cultures of change, obsolescence and repair and their effect on the architectural discipline both in the past and today.
Thordis Arrhenius, architect SAR, (MA in Architecture KTH 1994, MA History & Theory AA Graduate School 1996, Filosofie doctor (PhD) KTH, 2003). Recently appointed professor in Architecture, Theory and Method at the School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm, Arrhenius has previously held a professor chair in Architecture History at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (2007-20014) as well as in Culture Theory at Linköping’s University LIU, Sweden (2014-2018).
Arrhenius’ research interests concern the exhibition of architecture in mass culture, the relation between architecture and the museum, and the curatorial aspects of preservation. Publications include The Fragile Monument, on Conservation and Modernity (Artifice books on Architecture, 2012) Place and Displacement, Exhibiting Architecture, (eds. Arrhenius, Lending, McGowan, Wallis) Lars Müller Publisher, Zurich, 2014, and Experimental Preservation (eds. Arrhenius, Langdalen, Otero-Pailos) Lars Müller Publisher, Zurich, 2016.
Recent research projects investigate the role of the architectural exhibition in the reception of modern architecture in Scandinavia, the historiography of conservation, and the strategy of alteration and its architectural and theoretical implications. Under the working title Restoring the Welfare State she is at present developing a cross-disciplinary project on the welfare state, its cultures, politics, materials and agents, that aims, through the study of the ‘making’ of the welfare state, to contribute to the understanding of how the material heritage from the post-war period today is valued. She is the project leader for the research network Nordic Models of Architecture and Welfare which in 2018 received funding from the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the humanities and social sciences (NOS-HS).
07.09.2023 - 09.00h
UHasselt, Old prison
Martelarenlaan 42, 3500 Hasselt
Click here for the registration form!
Early Bird Registration: 150€ (after 10 July: 205€)
For students, alumni UHasselt and staff of UH partners in VLIR-UOS countries: 75€ (after 10 July 105€).
Uiterste datum van registratie is 27 augustus 2023.
The colloquium is closely linked with the exhibition As Found which will take place from September 2023 until March 2024 in De Singel in Antwerp. It is also connected to the research group TRACE of the Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University. This colloquium aims to bring together designers, researchers and students to discuss experimental concepts and practices to intervene in the existing built environment as found.
05.09.2023 - 07.09.2023
05.09.2023
Lecture by Anne Lacaton
20:00u DE SINGEL
Desguinlei 25, 2018 Antwerp
06.09 & 07.09.2023
Colloquium
As Found: Experiments in Preservation
Martelarenlaan 42, 3500 Hasselt
06.09.2023 - 16:30h
'As found 02: Towards Sustainable Design Futures' by Markus Berger, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (USA)
07.09.2023 - 09.00h
'Re-thinking Preservation; the Shoemaker and the Cobbler' by Thordis Arrhenius, School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden)
Early Bird Registration: 150€
After 10 July: 205€
For students, alumni UHasselt and staff of UH partners in VLIR-UOS countries: 75€
After 10 July 105€
Click here for the registration form!
Uiterste datum van registratie is 27 augustus 2023.
As Found
06.09.2023-17.03.2024
DE SINGEL, Antwerp
Prof. Markus Berger, Rhode Island School of Design
Stijn Cools, aNNo Architecten & KULeuven
Dr. Elke Couchez, Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University
Prof. Dr. Sofie De Caigny, Flanders Architecture Institute & UAntwerp
Prof. Stefan Devoldere, Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University
Hülya Ertas, Flanders Architecture Institute & KU Leuven
Prof. Dr. Christoph Grafe, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Prof. Dr. Bie Plevoets, Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University
Prof. Dr. Even Smith Wergeland, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Prof. Sally Stone, Manchester School of Architecture
Prof. Dr. Wouter Van Acker, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Prof. Dr. Koenraad Van Cleempoel, Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Van de Voorde, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Karina Van Herck, Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed
Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University
Nadin Augustiniok
Peter Firman
Christel Heynickx
Dr. Inge Lens
Prof. Dr. Bie Plevoets
Nusrat Ritu
Prof. Dr. Koenraad Van Cleempoel
Flanders Architecture Institute
Sofie De Caigny, Flanders Architecture Institute & UAntwerp
Hülya Ertas, Flanders Architecture Institute & KU Leuven
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