AS FOUND: CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE FROM FLANDERS
An Fonteyne, Bart Hollanders, Els Van Meerbeek
Roundtable Discussion
MON, 11.3.2024, 18:00 – KUPPELSAAL, TU WIEN

This roundtable discussion at the TU Wien presents three contemporary positions from Flanders that deal with the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. An Fonteyne (noAarchitecten, Brussels), Bart Hollanders (Eagles of Architecture, Antwerp) and Els Van Meerbeek (Carton123 architecten, Brussels) present their works and go into a dialogue with the moderator Lorenzo De Chiffre (TU Wien) on their design approaches in transformation projects. The works of these offices are part of the exhibition As Found. Experiments in Preservation, on show until 17 March 2024 at De Singel in Antwerp, curated by Sofie De Caigny, Hülya Ertas and Bie Plevoets. The event is supported by the General Representation of Flanders in Austria.

ADAPTIVE REUSE IN PRACTICE AND EDUCATION

After being considered less crucial than new construction for generations, the transformation of existing buildings and adaptive reuse has entered mainstream architecture discourse and is now a central part of European policy through the New European Bauhaus initiative. Yet realigning architectural practices towards working with the as found requires an intense debate and exchange of ideas. As we are dealing with a paradigm shift, future architects’ education also demands an urgent renewal. We must adapt the curriculum in architecture schools towards acquiring competencies tuned to working with existing structures.

VIENNA AND FLANDERS, TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES

Until a generation ago, Vienna could point to an active local tradition of working with existing structures in urban situations. After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the socioeconomic upturn that followed, this local strand of architecture gave way to faster and brasher building practices. In turn, within the last two decades, Flanders, driven by entirely different socioeconomic premises, has established itself as an architectural hotbed for adaptive reuse and transformation of existing buildings. This event at the TU Wien will bring into dialogue local European approaches concerning adaptive reuse and showcase current examples from Flanders on addressing this urgent topic in practice and education.

The exhibition catalogue AS FOUND: EXPERIMENTS IN PRESERVATION will be on sale from 18:00 in the Kuppelsaal.

Fotocredits:
Het Steen by noAarchitecten, photo: Kim Zwarts