REUSE THE MODERNIST CITY

REUSE THE MODERNIST CITY

KENNEDY ENSEMBLE LIEGE_BELGIUM

MASTER THESIS

FRANCOIS DUMONT SUPERVISOR_MARIE MOORS

HASSELT UNIVERSITY

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE ADAPTIVE REUSE

INTERNATIONAL MASTER 2019_2020

I would like to express my very great appreciation to Drs. Marie Moors, my supervisor, for her valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this master thesis. Her willingness to give her time has been appreciated.

I would also like to thank Pr. Nikolaas Vande Keere, my tutor for the design studio, for his advice and assistance in the elaboration of my master project. My grateful thanks are also extended to all the teachers involved in the adaptive reuse master for the intellectual framework in which this master thesis was made possible.

Finally, I would like to thank all the people who, directly or indirectly, participated in the preparation of this research.

ABSTRACT

The Kennedy ensemble is one of the most relevant expression of modernism in Liège. Completed in 1971 by the architects Jean Poskin and Henri Bonhomme, the ensemble is maybe the most emblematic project of the urban regeneration in Liège occurred after the Second World War. At the foot of the tower, the plinth volume houses since its construction the biggest public library in Wallonia but unfortunately, the collection will move to a new building in 2022 and will leave the modernist ensemble empty. This situation held the question of “how to reuse the modernist city?”

This thesis has the aim to give a contextual and theoretical approach to the process of adaptive reuse of the Kennedy ensemble. It will find what were the challenges of the time and how modernist utopia evolved through time. The research showed that the modernist utopia suffered from a sort of disgrace at the end of the XXth century in Europe. But it also revealed a certain nascent interest in the population, especially in Belgium, for the movement in the beginning of the XXIst century.

This thesis presents a specific program tailored for the Kennedy ensemble to give to the building a second life and make it part of the society again. The architectural culture, as some practical examples already exist in Brussels, has the power to give a new energy to some modernist buildings. The transformation of the Kennedy ensemble into an architectural hub would become a starting point to enhance the modernist heritage in Liège and initiate the reuse of the modernist city.

In the aftermath of WWII, many cities in Europe suffered from considerable housing shortages, leading to new housing developments, many of which were high-rise housing estates, built following the principles of the Modern Movement and CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne). The ideology is based on the concept of the ‘Functional City’, implemented through ideas such as function-based city zones, with minimum dwellings together with collective infrastructures; low-rise and high-rise buildings in extensive green areas; the ideal of ‘air, light and nature’ combined with high-density living and standardisation; open ground-floor plans and pedestrian areas separated from traffic routes. In the context of an urgent need for housing, the strong, uncompromising approach was accepted without hesitation. Politicians and planners built according to architectural notions, in which high-rise served as a potent symbol of a ‘new architecture for new people’ in a modern post-war age of multi-family living, communal facilities and social equality. Despite the lofty ambitions of the Modern Movement, many of these projects have undergone a critical shift in meaning, and are today associated with problematic living conditions, deprived areas, isolated locations, a low-income population, social isolation, pollution, crime etc. As a consequence, questions emerge about how to solve these problems, in many cases resulting in demolition, even of the most iconic projects, such as the Pruitt-Igoe in St, Louis, USA, or the Smithsons’ Robin Hood Gardens in London.

Despite the negative connotations of this architectural typology, some interesting refurbishment projects have been executed over the past decades, in which the pre-existing was not eliminated.

Marie Moors Reviving the modernist utopia

This master thesis is the result of several month of research on modernism but moreover an answer to several years of questioning towards those concrete ensembles.

As a growing architect at University of Liège, I had the opportunity to work on the Brasserie des Alliés in Marchienne-au-Pont near Charleroi, a modernist building completed in 1937. It is with a taste of too little that, when I arrived at University of Hasselt, I decided to lead my research on modernism.

As I always found its shape very elegant and iconic when I used to cross the passerelle to go to school, I made the choice to work on the Kennedy ensemble to express what I had to say about it, but also as an opportunity to learn more about modernism. The more I progressed in my research, the more the Kennedy ensemble appears as one of the most representative example of the modernist mutation in Liège.

I decided thus to write this thesis to understand what were the architectural and urban challenges during the XXth century in order to have a better comprehension of the modernist utopia. But I was also really intrigued by the negative meaning that those buildings have for many and decided to then to find out what were the reasons of this reject.

This master thesis is then a version of my researches on the Kennedy ensemble and on the modernist movement in general. It aims to give a clear historical and theoretical framework to the adaptive reuse design. The Kennedy ensemble and this research are dear to me have the ambition to give an answer to the reuse of the modernist city.

INTRODUCTION

“In the glad old days, before the rise of modern morbidities...it used to be thought a disadvantage to be misunderstood.”1

Modernism is one of the most controversial architecture styles ever. Torn between progress and ugliness, the utopia developed by the modernists was, during the mid XXth century, a vision for the future and had the aim to improve the society.

The Kennedy ensemble is one of the most relevant expressions of the modern period in Liège. Facing the river Meuse and the Kennedy’s bridge from which the building takes its name, the ensemble is located in the heart of the city, close to the St Paul Cathedral and the University of Liège. The tower on top of the complex is one of the most iconic landmarks in the skyline of the city and is a clear brutalist expression. This ensemble, which houses the biggest public library in Wallonia, was completed in 1971 by the architects

Jean Poskin (1916-1998) and Henri Bonhomme (dates unknown). Its construction is part of a big urban regeneration process and part of the global plan for the modernisation of the cultural institutions of Liège. Unfortunately, the authority plans to relocate the library to a new construction in 2022, making the future of the actual library still unpredictable at the moment.

In a general view, the modernist heritage is neglected by the majority and the ambitions of the modernists during that period are said to be outdated. A large amount of those productions has been destroyed without searching for any solutions or reuse possibilities following cultural, economical social issues but also to a public disinterest. This master thesis wants to bring to light the context, political and architectural, in which the Kennedy ensemble has been built. But moreover, the idea is also to understand how modernism raised and what the ideas of the

1 CHESTERTON Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Heretics, Jazzybee Verlag, 1960

architects were after the Second World War and understand how this utopia fell at the end of the XXth century.

How did modernism grow to reach this greatness and modify the face of our European cities ? In which context did the modernist dream started to decreased to arrive to this current negative meaning ? How can the architectural culture become part of our city in order to save the modernist heritage and involve people in the discipline ? This research has the aim to answer these questions through a theoretical framework in which the adaptive reuse project of the Kennedy ensemble will be realised. The methodology used is mainly the review of literature, scholar work and articles.

The first part will focus on the history of the Kennedy ensemble. In this part, the social, political, urban and architectural context will be presented, in order to understand the construction of the ensemble. It will focus on the global modern policy in Liège, then the specific case of the neighbourhood regeneration in which the ensemble took place and finally present the building itself and how it is perceived today.

The second part of the thesis has the aim to present the modernist utopia and how the movement evolved through time. It will allow to give an historical and theoretical background to the Kennedy ensemble in preparation to the design project. It will present how modernism appeared as a solution to reconstruct the cities after the Second World War and how the modernist view changed the identity of European cities. Then it will focus on the decline of the vision and its recent re-appropriation. Afterwards, the thesis will present the architectural culture as a

theme to give a new momentum and a positive meaning to the controversial architectural style.

Finally, the third part of the master thesis presents the design process as an answer to the void created in the city of Liège following the Chiroux library relocation. This part will first give a context in which the re-appropriation of the modernist heritage occurs in Belgium and more specifically in Liège. After this, it will present the complex program tailored for the reuse of the Kennedy ensemble, and finally the concept and some graphic documents will be revealed to understand the design approach as a result of this research.

MODERN URBANISM IN LIEGE

This first chapter will give a theoretical and historical background to the rise of modernism in Liège. It will present the state of the city after the Second World War and what were the challenges of the time. Then, this chapter will introduce the different actors who participated in the modernisation of Liège and what were their plans.

Out of the Second World War, the city of Liège had to face many destructions. Almost 10% of the buildings were destroyed, some neighbourhoods were completely torn down, roads were in a terrible state and the bridges were voluntary destroyed to protect the city during the war. The city had to be rebuilt and must repair the damages caused by the war. But Liège faced at the same time some other challenges.

Indeed, the industrial decline changed the landscape of the city. As Liège used to be named the queen of industry by the glory of coal mining industry, the 1929 economic crisis

engender the close of several companies in the alluvial plain of Liège. Even if the city remains a good industrial pole, bad work conditions gained the manufactures who were forced to leave the city centre to the urban fringe where the plots are more affordable and wider. All the military institutions in Liège closed (the citadelle, the canons foundry, the armoury) and the Londoz train station that brought life to its neighbourhood is destroyed. The consequence of all this deindustrialisation, a large part of Liégeois lost their employment.

The city centre of Liège also suffered from obsolescence. More than 80% of the city were build before 1918 and most heritage buildings are slowly becoming ruins. As a result, the population lives in low-comfort dwellings sometimes without tap-water access. Some neighbourhoods became slum areas.

Moreover, the access to the centre of Liège is uneasy. The roads are not wide enough for the massive arrival of cars and are congested

Cité administrative, Jean Poskin & Henri Bonhomme, 1967

Neighbourhood of Droixhe, Egau group, 1950

Palais des Congrès, l’Equerre, 1958

by tramways and some market places, the river Meuse crossing is by narrow temporary bridges, and the parking areas are missing.

In reaction to the collapsing situation of Liège after WWII, the association named Le Grand Liège founded in 1936 by Georges Truffaut (1901-1942) regained activity. This association was in charge to eradicate the decline that Liège was in and started to build up some reflections and publications on the economic health and urbanism of the city. In the great figures of the association, Jean Lejeune (1914-1979), member then president, was in the main time the public works alderman for the city of Liège. He contributed a lot to the modernisation of the infrastructures of the city. He wrote : “In 1945, out of Second World War, Liège found freedom in its destroyed bridges, its devastated crossroads, its smashed streets and its partly ruined districts. The first concern for the population and the authority was to repair the war damages. However, this wasn’t complete yet that we perceived - in Liège like elsewhere - that if the XVIIIth century city didn’t fit for the XIXth society, the XIXth city stopped responding to the current evolution, governed by the second industrial revolution and the nearfuture requirements.”2

The city authority, launched a policy of major works to rebuild the city such as stimulate the economy but never the less, the will is to become a ‘big regional metropolis’. In deed, Alfred Putzeyes (1908-1976) wrote : “We shouldn’t be afraid to see big, we should’t work with the year 1950 as an objective but with the year 2000 : we will be there in a bit more than fifty years. In the field of landing expansion and

urbanism we would never see big enough, we would never have too large limits and projects wide enough”3. This vision, shared by many, is the starting point of a large four years study proposed by the public works ministry was named Preliminary investigation to the master plan of the region of Liège and was realised by the reputed architectural and urbanism office l’Equerre and the university of Liège. It was published in 1959. Despite its remarkable qualities, this plan has never been translated into reality and the consequences are still felt today. This plan suggested among others to increase the territory of Liège to the surrounding communes in order to raise the public finances. The neighbouring municipalities still take advantage to the city infrastructures without paying any tax. But this study became a tool in the modernisation of the city and its major public works.

Together, the public works department and the association Le Grand Liège worked on the same goal : the reconstruction and the raise (economic and cultural) of the city. They were particularly closed because several members of the association became politic figures in Liège. Working as pairs, Le Grand Liège made a lot of studies and presented in 1957 a program of crucial works named Ten works in five years and the public works department focused on a program through the studies of l’Equerre. Later, those two programs will be merged into one big Program for the region of Liège.

The task is huge, and the program regards projects such as different road communications, the reconstruction of several neighbourhoods, the public institutions

2 LEJEUNE Jean, Liège : Du Passé à L’avenir, Liège, Jean Lejeune, 1970

3 PUTZEYS Alfred, Liège Et Son Agglomération En Péril : Faits, Causes Et Remèdes, Liège: Le Grand Liège, 1946

(administrations, culture, shopping facilities, school and university) or the public spaces. Those topics were separated in two categories by Jean Lejeune: the urban body and the road arteries.4

First, the urban body constitutes the axis on which the department worked on to stimulate the commercial functions, the rise of the quantity and the comfort of housing, and finally preserve and inherence the main built heritage playing an important role on both intellectual and cultural plan. The commercial areas were located in the heart of the city and the markets were most of the time in the streets causing then many traffic jams and insecurity, but more over, the lack of place in the centre was catastrophic for the good expansion of economy. Then, it has been decided to move the markets out of the city, in Droixhe for example, where the access would be easier and where their is enough room to develop. The housing evolution is a major policy in Liège to increase the population and then, boost the tax but also reduce everyone’s charge. Several industrial abandoned sites were chosen to establish new residential ensembles and build higher. The best example of this policy is the neighbourhood of Droixhe by the group Egau, but less known is the project to build a big ensemble in Londoz with several towers. The project has never been realised because of it’s strategic place to build a shopping mall (Galleries du Londoz, now the Médiacité). For the urban centre, the district opted for the conservation and protection of the historic city aiming to preserve the picturesque landscape of Liège. Big resources are employed to restore the religious and public heritage. Some public functions took place in new buildings to fit the modernisation of the facilities. The Palais

4 In L’avenir de Liège et les travaux publics (1964) and Du passé à l’avenir (1970)

des congrès, the Cité administrative and the Chiroux library emerged in this context. Also, almost 11km of pedestrian streets are created in order to preserve the narrow streets and built heritage.

Secondly, the road arteries as defined by Jean Lejeune constitutes the the second axis to modernise Liège. It appears to be a huge challenge to connect Liège to the early European highway network, with the aim to put the city on the map of the big towns. As the XIXth century connected the cities by introducing the train transport, the XXth century would as well connect them with cars and so the Belgian state invested a lot in those highways. On one hand, the connection to this network permitted in the same time to circumvent Liège and relieve the centre form its traffic jams, but it facilitated also the access between Liège and the other Belgian cities. But for the urban actors, it was absurd, as the connection with Europe is now open, to break the circulation inside Liège. The construction of those highways allowed to prioritise the different scaled networks inside the city. The crossing transit of Liege was also redefined : North/South connection would be along the river Meuse and is today considered as boundaries between the city and the river.

Highways map, in Bulletin du Grand Liège, 1954

West/East connection is more complicated because of the urban fabric. However, two connections to cross the city are realised in the continuity of bridges : the Kennedy bridge with the Maurice Destenay Avenue, the Albert bridge with the direct connection with highway and the Maghin bridge with the connection to the road along the Citadelle hillsides project (but never built).

This huge urbanism program has completely changed the landscape of Liège during the last century and was created to raise the life quality in the city and put it on the map. Most of these major works are created in the modernist period between 1950 and 1980 and do still exist in these present days.

ANDRE DUMONT NEIGHBOURHOOD MUTATION

This chapter reveals the urban and architectural transformations of the André Dumont Neighbourhood in which the Kennedy ensemble took shape. It will present one of the biggest urban project of architectural, economical and cultural regeneration in Liège. The chapter will focus on the conceptual guidelines and then on the real mutations of the neighbourhood.

Two elements following the program for the modernisation of Liège are then at the origin of the reorganisation and restructuring of the André Dumont neighbourhood between 1958 and 1975: the reconstruction of the Boverie bridge and the new artery connecting West and East of Liège. Those two elements contribute to improve the life quality and the reduction of traffic in the area. This is why the reconstruction of the bridge and the Athénée Royal take place in the Ten works in five years program. “This neighbourhood still pays his

toll to the war, it is high time to save it.”5 The authority took advantage of the situation by involving lots of destructions and expropriations in order to engage the urban modernisation. They do this by creating a new residential, administrative and commercial area with a cultural and intellectual hub; formed by updated institutions and new functions.

After many demands and complains, the authority finally initiates the construction of the new Pont de la Boverie in 1958. The plans are developed but the modernist architect Georges Dedoyard (1897-1988) who also designed two other bridges in Liège, more particularly the Pont des Arches (1947) and the Pont Albert 1er (1957). To reach the rue André Dumont on the left bank of the river Meuse, the Pont de la Boverie spans the road longing the water with twice two ramps to access the bridge form the river side. At the behest of Le Grand Liège, another hopper is

5 Le Grand Liège, Les travaux publics dans la région liégeoise : un plan d’action pour 1958, in Bulletin du Grand Liège n°28, 1958, personal translation

G. Dedoyard sketch for the Kennedy’s bridge, 1960

integrated to the design on the right bank. The lines of the Boverie bridge reminds of the Arches bridge ones.

But according to Le Grand Liège : “The consequence of the bridge setting up is that the two islands siding the rue André Dumont wouldn’t be rapidly build and urbanised as suiting to a Liège entrance. There is a risk for the neighbourhood to remain abandoned for several years because we know how lasting the temporary solutions are. It is essential, at the foot of a modern bridge used by the international trafficking, not to find a disaster area, as a plague in the middle of the face, where life disappeared and commerces are impossible.”6

On Georges Dedoyard’s sketch with the straight-lined road to the Place St Paul, the idea of two towers on the two triangle shaped island surroundings of the bridge rises. But Jean Royer (1903-1981), in charge of the urbanisation of the neighbourhood decided to free one of those triangles to give more space to greenery.

The new Pont de la Boverie was unveiled in 1960 and renamed as the Kennedy’s bridge three years later in tribute to the president murdered in November of the same year.

In 1954, the first master plan for the André Dumont neighbourhood was build up to ensure the West-East road axis trough Liège. This project plans to extend the Pont de la Boverie axis with the rue André Dumont to the Place St Paul and connect them with the Boulevard d’Avroy. The expansion of several roads in the area to make room for cars and to build at the foot of the bridge two closed housing ensembles whose height is limited to 35m, was also planned. The master plan

6 Le Grand Liège, Le visage moderne de Liège, in Bulletin du Grand Liège, n°29, 1958, personal translation

Former Chiroux library, Joseph Lousberg, 1907

Rue André Dumont, 1962

Former Assistance publique, undated photo

Temporary bridge replacing the Boverie bridge, undates photo

creates a lot of expropriations and destructions. Considered as too intrusive in the urban fabric of Liège, the project is abandoned and revised by Jean Royer in 1961.

Architect and urbanist, Jean Royer was the study director of architecture school and urbanist professor in Paris. He is reputed for his remarkable works in Bordeaux with the Mériadeck project and the Grand-Parc neighbourhood. From 1950, he started to play several political roles in Liège and realised few urban development plans. He started to work on the A. Dumont neighbourhood master plan in 1959 and proposed to find another connection point with the Boulevard d’Avroy. He proposed to create a new artery to join the bridge and the rue A. Dumont with the rue Bertholet and the Boulevard d’Avroy. This artery was named avenue Maurice Destenay in 1975, named after the mayer of Liège from 1963 until his death in 1973.

“Out of the Pont de la Boverie, the new boulevard, that will be planted, curves to reach the Boulevard d’Avroy at the rue Bertholet high. In the central part, the boulevard is inserted in between the Hospice du Verbois, clearing its facade, and the courtyard of the new Athénée Royal of which it allowed the monumental installation.”

The project gives a strong importance to greenery with the Grand-Séminaire garden in the triangle island longing the rue A. Dumont but also with the creation of a public park at the corner of the Hospice du Vertbois. On the other triangle island, Jean Royer introduces a tower with a height minimum of 113m on a two-level plinth. To close the perspective of the rue St Paul, a curved building follows the alignment of the new avenue

to reach the new Athénée Royal. On the Place St Jacques side, a six levels block and an 11 levels tower will end the connection with the Boulevard d’Avroy.

The amount of expropriations in this second master plan is almost equal to the first one. In total, those expropriations cost 450 million of Belgian francs and will last almost ten years to succeed. These expropriations are managed by the acquisition committee, that is overworked by the working program on the highway and the new buildings to welcome the expropriated inhabitants last to be achieved.

In Jean Royer’s master plan, the Chiroux library is not affected by the modernisation of the neighbourhood. It is only in 1964 that Jean Lejeune expressed the idea to move the library, in his publication “L’avenir de Liège et les travaux publics”. This proposition implies to review a third time the master plan for the A. Dumont neighbourhood and reach a close version of the still existing situation.

In 1966, the updated master plan proposed to redefine the space in between the tower at the foot of the bridge and the Athénée Royal to fit to the design of the architects Jean Poskin & Henri Bonhomme. They are in charge of the urbanisation of the triangle island with the tower and to integrate the reconstruction of the Chiroux library on the island close by. The library and its surroundings are destroyed to form one big bloc facing the tower. It was named the Croisiers island following the name of the street in between. This block is designated to be a housing building with commerce on the ground floor. At the end of the volume, facing the avenue Maurice Destenay, the circular space is dedicated to a

7 Le Grand Liège, Le visage moderne de Liège, in Bulletin du Grand Liège, n°29, 1958, personal translation

A. Dumont neighbourhood, first master plan, PCA n°44, 1954

A. Dumont neighbourhood, second master plan, PCA n°44bis, 1961

A. Dumont neighbourhood, third master plan, PCA n°44ter, 1966

Avenue Maurice Destenay from the foot of the Chiroux cultural centre, 1979

André Dumont neighbourhood from the sky, 1979

public area, becoming a cultural centre. The curved building imagined by Jean Royer disappears and a double footbridge links the two volumes together in order to reach the green area in between the cultural centre and the Athénée Royal (future Place des Carmes).

This third revision of the master plan also modified the high from 113m minimum to 160m maximum and the Grand-Séminaire garden function to a public sport area.

In 1989 and in 1999, the master plan was revised again to allow the construction of a gas station at the corner of the Grand-Séminaire garden and the modification of the park area next to the Hospice du Vertbois into a housing plot.

Simultaneously with the development of the avenue Maurice Destenay, the authority decided to modernise the neighbourhood with the aim of creating a cultural area with new institutions. They presented a plan based on four points to develop the housing and commercial functions but also to renew a vibrant intellectual life in the neighbourhood : The opening of the Grand-Séminaire gardens to the public and the creation of the public square next to the Hospice du Vertbois.

The transformation of the area in a cultural space with the combined efforts of the bargain state and the city of Liège. The state was in charge of the reconstruction and extension of the Athénée Royal. The city of Liège was responsible for the reconstruction and extension of the Chiroux library with the addition of a cultural centre. They took advantage of the invitation of an important liégeois investor, S.A. Solico, who proposed to build an important residential

and commercial complex to integrate the library for the city in return of the cede of the plot. It was also possible to create, after the demolition of the Halles des Carmes, a new fine arts academy and high institute for architecture and urbanism, located just next to the new cultural centre.

The creation of a residential, commercial and administrative hub with the conception of two main complexes. The first was the Kennedy ensemble with a 25 levels tower for housing and two smaller towers for private companies (the SMAP and the Mutualité chrétienne). The second one is located in the corner formed by the avenue and the Place St Jaques where three volumes house 85 dwellings, a commercial area and a parking lot.

The rising of the housing capacity in the periphery of the neighbourhood, by permitting the construction of housing buildings on the Boulevard d’Avroy.

The preservation of the historical heritage monuments figures again in the program of the public works department. In 1959, the authority decided to restore St Jaques collegial that was in high danger of collapsing. Almost ten years where needed to secure and renovate the edifice.

The André Dumont neighbourhood strongly changes its profile during the modernist period. Three remarkable concrete ensembles rose up along a brand-new avenue that was connected with the periphery of Liège by the reconstruction of the Kennedy’s bridge.

KENNEDY ENSEMBLE HISTORY

The Kennedy ensemble is presented in this chapter more into details. The evolution of the design by the architects will be analysed in regard of the built situation. The chapter will present the architectural, programatic and aesthetic characteristics of the ensemble and finally how the building is perceived today.

The Kennedy ensemble is one of the most iconic modernist expressions in Liège landscape. Its construction defines the regeneration of the André Dumont neighbourhood. Based on Jean Royer’s master plan, the Kennedy ensemble houses both provincial and municipal libraries with a cultural centre, a parking lot, a housing tower and two smaller towers for private offices.

The big investor group S.A. Solico, founded in 1955 and still active today in Liège, concluded in 1968 with the government a contract to build the ensemble. Indeed, the city ceded the plot to the investor in return for the

construction of the library and cultural centre at its own expense. Solico group charged Jean Poskin and Henri Bonhomme, two famous modernist architects in the city who realised several significant buildings in Liège, to design the plans of the ensemble. The associated architects were involved in many projects that were representative for the modernist movement in the region such as the Cité administrative (1967), the résidence Georges Simenon (1967) or the Société générale de banque (1985), leaving in Liège an audacious heritage from the XXth century.

For the Kennedy ensemble, Jean Lejeune suggested in 1964 that from the wide terrace covering the 600 places parking volume, two twin towers housing dwellings, offices and a hotel would rise up. The circular volume would be the Chiroux library. The first architects’ sketches, following this concept, illustrate the imagination of Oscar Niemeyer’s (1907-2012) design for the international congress in Brasilia.

Jean Poskin & Henri Bonhomme, sketch for the Kennedy ensemble,1964

Jean Poskin & Henri Bonhomme, sketch for the Kennedy ensemble,1966

Construction of the Kennedy ensemble,1969

The project developed to the form that has been build is the following : one single high tower emerges from the triangle shape plinth and two smaller office towers emerge from the parking block; the cylindric volume for the cultural centre appears from the Place des Carmes. From the large terrace designated to the public, in the first sketch, only the footbridge along the avenue Maurice Destenay from the Place des Carmes remains. This bridge links the two islands by crossing the rue des Croisiers. Apart from the central hole in the tower meant for a shared terrace, the project was realised as presented.

The construction broke ground on the 28 of October 1968 (the same day as the Cité administrative unveiling) and will be delivered in 1971. The Chiroux library remained open during the construction process, waiting the opening of the new library, afterwards, in 1970, it was torned down. As a result, the construction of the ensemble is divided in two phases and the facade still carries traces of those stages. Six times bigger than the previous one, the new combined library became the biggest public book collection in Wallonia.

On the ground floor of the public part, it is almost 1600m2 of commercial space that was created and the children library is in the corner facing the river meuse. The 6130m2 cultural centre takes place in the six-storey cylindric volume consisting of the following aspects :

Underground : the performance hall, the exhibition space, the film and music library and the bank of arts;

Ground floor : the commercial area and cafeteria;

First floor : the children’s creative hub and the historical core of the Walloon movement;

Second floor : the reading room;

Third and fourth floor : the archives

Upper floor : the cultural affairs and fine-arts department.

The bridge-building that connects the Cultural centre to the main library in the triangle shape building, is housing the main reading room. Composed of two storeys, the huge Chiroux library is accessible from the rue des Croisiers entrance on the ground floor and leads the visitors to the different collection departments. A part of the third floor of the principal building is dedicated to the archives and staff offices. The last floor on the roof is a divided entity with on one side an area open for artist workshops and on the other side the school for future librarians combined with the dining area. On the central space, under the tower, the facilities and the teachers offices of the school are located.

The rest of the ensemble is composed of three towers :

The Kennedy tower, the most prominent building of the ensemble. With a 85 meters height, it contains of 216 dwellings spread out on 25 levels with two entrances, one in the rue des Croisiers and one facing the Kennedy’s bridge. Some private storage and a small parking lot in the basement of the library are accessible from the inside of the tower only for the inhabitants.

The two other seven floor towers are dedicated to two private owners, the SMAP and the Mutualité chrétienne. They both have their commercial area on the ground floor and their private offices in the towers above. The in-between volume is a big parking lot for 570 cars.

Aerial view of the André Dumont neighbourhood, before the construction of the Kennedy ensemble, 1962

Aerial view of the André Dumont neighbourhood, after the construction of the kennedy ensemble, 1971

The concrete structure of the building is really part of its identity and is expressed on the facades. The main structure is composed of a post (50/50) and beam (50/60) grid allowing a freedom in the use and displaying the different functions. The Kennedy tower inserts itself in this grid with a mix structure of wall and post (140/100).

The cylinder is composed of a central hard core, with the vertical circulations, and beams bearing on round piles (°50). The bridge-building is hold by a central cross shape post in the middle of the rue des Croisiers.

The Kennedy tower, is the most iconic landmark in the skyline of Liège, due to its height and its shape. Its remarkable 85m height gave it the position of the highest building in the city until 1978; as then the construction of the Atlas tower took place with the height of 87m; dethroned in turn in 2015 by the Paradis Tower with the height of 118m.

The Kennedy ensemble with its tower, that faces the river Meuse and the bridge, from which it takes its name, is framed by two other towers. The base with the rotunda bellow the towers constitutes the most successful expression of brutalism in the centre of Liège.8 It is a unique combination of cultural, commercial and housing functions. This part of the Jean Royer’s master plan fulfils a strong cultural layer in the neighbourhood, in particular by being a relevant interpretation of the modernist language of the XXth century.

Critic and teacher at the London Royal College of art, JJ Charlesworth (°1947) wrote: “The Chiroux are to Liège, close to what the British architectural critic Reyner Banham qualified as megastructure. With its archways and its raised footbridge, the Chiroux ensemble combines some commerce, some offices, a cafe, a library, a media library and a housing tower in a set of interconnected structures delimited by the futuristic rotunda topical of the 60’s on the St Paul street side and extending on the rue des Croisiers that it also overlooks. In my opinion, the Chiroux represent the perfect example of the modernist vision after the war of an integrated total merger of architecture and urban planning. A multifunctional structure combining and incorporating the traffic within instead of a complex delimited by the preexisting circulation axes. The Chiroux ensemble is remarkable in the way it exemplifies the attempt to integrate the architecture and its urban environment. It also poses a number of questions regarding the modernist project and its limits in terms of urban development policy.”9

The authority presented in 2018 the aim of creating a new cultural hub combining the Chiroux library and the Théâtre de la place on the Bavière site, in Outremeuse. The new building will be completed in 2022. The huge collection and the cultural centre, forming the plinth of the Kennedy ensemble, will be moved in the new building in Outremeuse. No information has been presented for the future reuse of the actual buildings.

8 MOOR Thomas, HAUTECLER Paul, Complexe Chiroux-KennedyCroisiers, in Guide architecture moderne et contemporaine 1895-2014, Mardaga & Cellule Architecture de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, 2014

9 CHARLESWORTH Jean-Joseph, Monuments du futur, in Art & Fact, L’architecture au XXème siècle à Liège, la revue des historiens de l’art de l’Université de Liège, n° 29, Liège, 2010, personal translation

Chiroux cultural centre, undated postcard

TOWARDS A MONUMENTAL FORMALISM

In this chapter, the rise of the modernism is put in its social and historical context. The vision of the modernist architects is presented in relation to the reconstruction of European cities after the Second World War. The global urban view of the modernists meets the vision for a ‘new man’ in a ‘new society’. The chapter determines the modernist approach to understand how our cities changed during the XXth century.

The Second World War presents itself as a traumatic event in Western Europe from which a real shift in the modernist movement appeared. This move occurs within the architecture style and the urban planning as well. Modernist movement before WWII is an architectural response to the needs of a plot, to the needs of comfort for everyone. After the war, the architect became politically engaged in the urban development and started designing big scale projects in order to redefine the city.

“About 1952 there was a significant shift within Modernism from what had come to be called Functionalism, or the International Style, toward a monumental formalism. There was increasing interest in highly sculptural masses and spaces, as well as in the decorative qualities of diverse building materials and exposed structural systems.”10

The idea of the ‘high-rise building’ became a new concept of the modern society after the War. As the functional modernism brought to the city a significant rise of the sanitary conditions, the after War formalist modernism handled the urban fabric. Formalism appeared as an answer to the yet named concern of ‘the parsimonious use of land’ but moreover to the desire for many cities to build up a new sense of image and identity. With this new ideology, towers played an important role in the urban

10 BUSH-BROWN Albert, WATKIN David John, Western architecture: After World War II, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2018

reconstruction process.11

Indeed, the Second World War has been undoubtably more damaging than the First War, following the technical progress in armament. The destructions could be deliberate, voluntary or even accidental and several monuments disappeared. In 1954, after many procedures by the UNESCO, an intergovernmental conference was organised in La Haye and this was the starting point for the Convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. It was the first international document in this field; the convention hedged both movable and non-movable heritage including architectural, archeological and historical heritage. But the cities suffered from the massive destructions and the reconstructions express a high variety in the strategies in terms of urbanism and architecture. Examples of reconstruction following the WWII are innumerable. After several bombing attacks, the city centre of Le Havre was entirely torn down. Entrusted to Auguste Perret Atelier, the reconstruction of the city, between 1945 and 1964, was a real big scale laboratory for the modernists theories.12

The aftermath of the Second World War and the general context of reconstruction encouraged many cities to develop a new urban plan in order to generate a new economical and architectural energy. It is the starting point and almost a pretext to inject a large modernisation process of the city and to develop many urban projects.

“Modernity then is a temporal/historical concept by which we refer to our understanding of the present in its unique historical presentness, that is, in what distinguishes it from the past, from the various relics or survivals of the past, and also in what it promises for the future and its trends, quests and discoveries.”13

The new modernist ensemble, like the high-rise housing estates, were mostly built according to the concept and utopia of reputed architects like Le Corbusier (1887-1965). With the CIAM (Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne), they had an important impact on the conception of housing and more particularly on social housing. According to Le Corbusier, a house needed to function as une machine à habiter and should only, in an optimal way, present the function of a dwelling. The CIAM conference of 1929, in Frankfurt, that was also dealing with the existing industrial city problems, created the response to what will become a big need for housing after WWII. They presented a concept founded on the modernist ideas of the time. For Walter Gropius (1883-1969), this plan was going to be housing for the new ‘urban industrial population’ (1962).

“On the scale of the city, the Modern movement argued against the chaotic ‘growth’ and for a planned approach, which should be guided by a puritan member of the technically skilled elite. […] Orderliness, the strict separation of functions and high-rises within large green and open areas open to the public, are amongst the core elements of the modernistic doctrine.”14

12

11 CHARLIER Sébastien, FRANKIGNOULLE Pierre, Towards a vertical architecture, in The Apartment Building, Real Estate Architecture, 2018

HOUBART Claudine, Cours notes form: Histoire et théories de la conservation-restauration, La seconde reconstruction, Cesare Brandi (19061988) et la Charte de Venise (1964), University of Liège, 2019 Professor presents here the various reconstruction strategies through the example of Le Havre that was entirely rebuild, Varsovie that was almost rebuild as an exact replica and the special case of Oradour-sur-Glane where the city was let to the ruin state as a memorial.

13 CALINESCU Matei, Modernity, Modernism, Modernization: Variations on Modern Themes, Symploke, 1-20, 1993

14 DE DECKER Pascal, NEWTON Caroline, At the Fall of Utopia, Urbani Izziv, vol. 20, no. 2, 2009

Rue de Paris, Le Havre, 1944

Avenue Foch, Le Havre, after reconstruction

Plan Voisin, Le Corbusier, 1925

After WWII, the modernist ideal became much more of an evidence. It appeared like the best solution at the right moment. At the time, the theory behind this architectural movement is the ambitious ‘good city’ and ‘right way of living’. Indeed, it was the intention that through architecture, urban design and global planning, the ‘new man’ and a ‘social transformation’ could be created.15 This vision for the society aided the authorities to legitimise high scale projects for their cities. Moreover, the new construction techniques and materials made those projects possible in a short period of time, in the light of the urgent housing need after the war.

Many European cities suffered from the war, but, in addition to it, the quality of the old XIXth century city started to decrease, some shantytowns even appeared at the fringe of several cities. But a high pressure emerged on housing demand following rural exodus and mass migrations from the colonies.

This vision for the modern urban fabric totally redefined the organisation, on a same plan, of the city’s centralised institutions and its society. The city would be the new image of a modern and functional population. “The city was differentiated according to the following basic function types: Production, administration, consumption, recreation, habitation. For each of these functiontypes (types of social interaction) the Modernist architects and urbanists developed functionally specialised urban typologies, instantiated as distinct, separate, specialised, repetitive zones.”16

The vision for the city also advocate for the separation between the pedestrian and the car traffic routes. The dwellings or administations became high-rise concrete towers with an optimised orientation leaving a wider space on the ground for nature.

Those principles are very well represented by Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin for Paris, with a generic design of an ideal modernist and functionalist city where the concept of separation, specialisation and repetition are manifested and where each zone is frankly distinct and recognisable.

From a general view, the modernist architectural style is defined by a real rise of its adaptability allowed by the formal openness it demonstrates. This openness is reached by the level of abstraction that the architecture gained, in contrast with the previous architectural styles. Supported by the idea that architectural design is a layout organisation of spaces, this new abstraction gives this freedom and innovation on both structural and functional level. But these innovative openness and adaptability of architecture, also appeared at the same time as a sort of formal restriction and compositional concept. The modernist vocabulary released itself from the classical rules dictated by treatise such as the symmetry or the proportions. It is instead directed by orthogonality and hierarchical organisation based on the principles of separation, specialisation or repetition.

15 FITTING Peter, Urban planning/utopian dreaming: Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh today, Utopian Studies, 2002

16 SCHUMACHER Patrik, The Stages of Capitalism and the Styles of Architecture, ASA web-magazine & (forthcoming): UED (Urban Environment Design) Magazine, London, 2016

Those formal constraints and compositional principles are the basis to any kind of purpose and can be easily adapted to different functions such as the industry. Indeed, after the war, the city is deserted by the industries in search

for place and relocate them out of the town. The industry sector, that also needed to be rebuild after after the war, becomes a large laboratory for the modernist architects. This period is the era of mass production based on a post-Fordist scheme, but it is also the era of neo-liberalism with the rise of the capitalist economy. If the city lost its industries, it became then the new field for the bureaucratic society. It is in this economic and social context that several trade centres appeared. Several companies started to build their administrative headquarters inside the town and in some cities, some business centres were even created; strongly modifying the skyline of cities. The authorities also had the aim to create a powerful metropole with the modernisation of cultural public equipment and their administration. Finally, the massive arrival of the car trafficking also deeply modified the existing urban fabric where a strong importance was given to the accessibility.

With a view based on the modernist utopia, the second half of the XXth century saw a certain level of societal development and a qualitative proliferation of modernist ensembles. A new monumental formalist modernism arrived then as a solution to the war damages but also as a chance to redefine the society through a global urban planning. This movement reveals thus a true desire for cities to generate a new identity and attractiveness that can unsurprisingly be associated to a sort of city branding.

THE FALL OF AN UTOPIA & REAPPROPRIATION

Modernist image went through hard time at the end of the XXth century and the fall of the movement will be presented in this chapter through the shift in the modernist meaning. Social and economic issues leaded to the comparison of modernism with penitential architecture. This chapter will also find how cities try today to re-appropriate those architectures through a outdated utopia.

The modernist imaginary is typically representative of the thoughts of the XXth century and a powerful manifest of urban development that totally changed our cities forever. But this utopia, that would have change the society and the world, seems to have collapsed after few decades. Already in 1959, Aldo Van Eyck (19181999) said that “this minimum form of housing is a ‘new kind of shack’ and that ‘die Wohnung für das Existenzminimum’ has become the manual for the housing administrator or entrepreneur with

the sole interest in output” 17 However, the CIAM ideas kept on developing and the cities still were modernised through big urban projects.

Considered as the end of ‘high modernism’, the Pruitt-Igoe estate demolition is the starting point of a large reconsideration of the modernist vision. Pruitt-Igoe was a high-rise estate in St Louis, Missouri, build between 1954 and 1956 by the architect Minoru Yamasaki (19121986). Within a decade, the ensemble already suffered from poverty, and slowly ran down. In 1972, less than twenty years after its completion, the estate was torn down. This example became the most reputed example of the modernist decline.18 But architecture is not the only factor leading to the fall of modernism. In many estates, several social and technical phenomena deeply modified the purist modernist vision. Some recurrent problems such as the acoustic

17 VAN EYCK Aldo, Het verhaal van een andere gedachte, Forum 9, 1959

18 MARSHALL Colin, Pruitt-Igoe: the troubled high-rise that came to define urban America – a history of cities in 50 buildings - day 21, The Guardian, 2015

Pruitt Igoe destruction, St Louis, 1972

which makes the estate particularly unquiet, the accessibility to some dwellings were sometimes difficult in everyday life, or technical problems with the lifts or waste disposals; made those residence less attractive. Another issue is the peripheral location of the ensembles out of the city centre where the majority of the estate inhabitants had to go everyday for their profession.

Pruitt-Igoe destruction became an anthem for the modernists detractors, like the journalist Jane Jacobs or even Katherine G. Bristol (dates unknown), who assumed, in 1991 that the estate turned to be an ‘anti-utopian byproduct’. According to her, it was high necessity to demolish the building, following to several social issues (crime, vandalism). The inhabitants compared their dwellings as dormitories or as a ‘prison-like habitat’, a comparison that would become a real coup. Instead of contending that the tenants had to adapt themselves to the modernist utopia in order to suit as a ‘decent middle class hardworking citizen’ as what the modernist architects aimed for; she concentrated on the relationship between the inhabitants and their flat and the catastrophic reactions between them. But the evident symbolic resemblance to a penitential architecture also found its beginnings to the clear physical similarities with a prison trough the fences, metal bars before doors and windows, or even guards. In this context, a social imbalance grew in the modernist estates and a great serious appeared leading to an insecurity and somehow to the obsolescence of the modernist aspirations. The families that moved to the city in the hope to find a better future in the neo-capitalist era found themselves in a crisis situation when they couldn’t afford leaving the estates.

“Unfortunately the estates were being constructed in a time of increasing prosperity and the birth and rise of the welfare state. The budget of the households grew and consequently so did their choosiness with regard to their housing choices. Numerous high-rise social housing estates lost their popularity and were caught up in a downward spiral of marginalisation and decay. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that these estates are currently being restructured or even demolished.”19

With the decay of the modernist housing concept, it is the whole the architectural and urban modernist movement that collapsed. The image of the ‘good city’ and its benefice on the society started to become outdated and decadent. The modernist vision settled to answer the increasing need of dwellings but above all to update the image and identity of the cities that became finally the expression of a breathless bureaucratic society. The big scale projects that totally redefined the face of the modern cities became examples of a miss understanding between history, heritage, society and the needs of a city and its dwellers.

This substantial shift towards the modernist image and the urban development revealed another incomprehension. Indeed, with the negative meaning that modernism reached, society started to look backwards and analyse the impacts of the last fifty years on the urban fabric and on the landscape of the city. As modernism started to be inappropriate for the image of the city and gained a poor connotation, people slowly began to regret the old town. Some big scale modernist projects sometimes required the

19 DE DECKER Pascal, NEWTON Caroline, At the Fall of Utopia, Urbani Izziv, vol. 20, no. 2, 2009

demolition of several buildings, sometimes even a whole neighbourhood, that was not considered to be qualitative at the beginning of the XXth century. Even if, at the end of the Second World War the preservation and restoration of the built heritage became a preoccupation, the XIXth century architecture and urbanism were not seen as an important inheritance to protect. As a matter of fact, the XIXth town was regarded as weak and not profitable for the development of the city. It seemed at the rise of modernism a potential field to develop a new urbanity. But, at the fall of the modernist magnitude, a nostalgia took over the people. Looking backwards to the typic city of the XIXth century with its traditional urban fabric and find how destructive modernism could have been, participated and reinforce the negative connotation thrown on the concrete city.

“There is no doubt that a new architecture would improve towns and the living situation of many, however to assume that it could improve the world as a whole is completely nonsensical. What about problems of economy and political debate? Perhaps the reason the modernist utopia is so often cited as a failure is because of its unrealistic ambitions. There is no doubt that modernism, to an extent, solved some design problems by keeping abreast of technology.”20

Modernism attained a certain level of disgrace that it was seen as the image of an outdated mighty power not corresponding to the urban aspirations of the arriving XXIst century. It even gained such a meaning that the modernists objects are said to be ugly by the majority sometimes even without any consideration. This

sentiment towards the productions of last century is often translated into demolitions or desertion leading to abandoned areas as the witness of a real decadence of the modernist utopia.

These last 15 years, a timid shift about modernism occurred in the mind of people. Following the disinterest for the architectural and urbanist style, a questioning appears in the society to look at those buildings from another point of view, clearly shown through initiative such as DOCOMOMO21, or the presentation of modernism as a world heritage by the UNESCO22. The brutalistic elements that the modernist buildings characterise seems to gently gain the interest of the people. In reaction to the partly or entirely demolitions of several estates or public buildings, architects find through this architecture a sort of answer to the actual needs of the city. Indeed, a sort of disappointment towards the contemporary architecture highlights thus the qualities of the modernist approach. But also, as a trend, the rise of the reuse culture allows us to bring a second chance to those buildings. It is through careful observation, that we find in the modernist architecture a certain archetype in the functional disposals of the actual codes of architecture. Through the prism of a past utopia, the city tends to find in the refurbishment or reuse of the modernist ensembles a new ideology.

“I believe that the modern utopia begins today, in point of fact. It begins with the idea of recycling spaces, which allows of strategies of union, hybridisation and conversion; strategies that generate complexities one was unable to

21 DOCOMOMO is an acronym for the DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the MOdern MOvement

22 The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement, UNESCO

ZIN No(o)rd, ongoing project, 51N4E, Brussels

The modernist structures have a strong potential to house new function following the high adaptability character of these. But the main challenge is now to go hand in hand with the actual codes of the city. The glass and concrete ensemble provided by the modernist period broke with the rest of the city due to the strict mono functional aspect of the place. No clear solution has been found to requalifiy those areas but one of the tracks is to mix the functions in order to generate a new identity to the place. The ongoing project by the office 51N4E in the affaire district in north of Brussels is redefining the modernist utopia. The ‘ZIN No(o)rd’ project aims to reuse the WTC I and II towers built in 1983 and transform the mono-functionality into a hybrid vertical neighbourhood with some offices, a hotel, some apartments, shops and sport areas. An added volume allows to link the two towers with housing, but the ensemble of the project lies in the complex mixed allocation of the program in the building. The hope is to operate a significant shift on the negative meaning of the modernist bureaucratic building to fit to the actual society codes.24

From a general view and following the rise of re-appropriation projects of modernist heritage in Europe, the modernist utopia seems finally to find a new meaning in the city and a place in everyone consciousness as a field to redesign the city but also to accept the vision of the modernist architects. It becomes not only the image of a past glory for capitalism but also the renew of the city on a historical basis.

Zin No(o)rd, ongoing project, 51N4E, Brussels, functions

ARCHITECTURAL CULTURE & MODERNIST HERITAGE

The architectural culture will be presented in this chapter as an answer to bring the modernist movement to light. It will try to define what is the architectural culture and its importance in our society. Then present the current institutions in Belgium that promote architecture. Finally, the potential of modernist buildings to promote the architectural culture will be analysed through two examples in Brussels.

Based on the assumption that the architectural culture is everyone’s affaire25, its promotion is almost inexistent and as a result, it is most of the time misunderstood by many. Architecture creates every day’s and everybody’s environment. According to its use-value, it concerns us all as a context to our life. Seen for a large part of the society as a drawer who knows the construction rules, the architect, sometimes, has to deal with clients not really aware of its work.

The promotion of the architectural culture deserves a clear place in the society as a way to make it part of everyone’s consciousness. It should be present in the city as a place to share architectural culture to everybody in order to present it as an artistic and theoretical discipline much more than a tool.

The first collections of architectural documents such as drawings, sketches or models date back to the XIXth century. Those collections were private enterprise and the majority of them where closed to public. Those gathered mainly information about important or monumental buildings: religious edifices, public buildings, palaces, big properties, … It is only during the late previous century that those collections were opened to public and some museums of architecture appeared. They were created to educate the visitor to different aspects of architecture and urbanism. It is in this post World War context that the subjects like the design of cities and buildings, the hygiene and

comfort conditions the separation of functions and the public housing projects became highly significant. At the same time, debates on the modern society, the individual rights and freedom or the economic independence appeared as crucial for development. Following this shift of mentality, the condition of the ‘ordinary people’ in their everyday life became important topics in the fields of architecture and urbanism. In our region, three well known museums reflect on themes such as emancipatory of the modern city, the role of history in the process of modernisation or the signification of ordinary everyday architecture : The German Architecture Museum opened in 1984, The Netherland Architecture Institute, created in 1998 and the Cité de l’Architecture in Paris founded in 2007. Those institutions form important keys of the renewal process of their cities concerning the spatial upgrading and gentrification of the urban fabric. Their architecture is also the expression of their influence on their cities.

In Belgium, this institutionalisation of the architectural culture is more recent and aims at defining an identity of the country. Those institutes have the objective to organise some exhibitions, some installations, several visits, set up a conference cycle, debates and some activities and animations to promote and share the discipline at large. Three institutions were created to be the reference institutes:

The Vlaams ArchitectuurInstituut founded in 2001, is the main centre for information about architecture from Flanders and Brussels. It creates a platform for everyone who wants to make, share and experience architecture.26

The CIVA, created in 2016 brings together within a single structure the resources, knowledge and know-how of several cultural associations active in Brussels in the fields of architecture, town planning, landscape and the study of ecosystems. Through its cultural project, CIVA contributes to the development of an architectural, landscape and urban culture as a basis for facing contemporary challenges, with special emphasis on Brussels.27

The Cultural Institute of Architecture

Wallonia-Brussels (ICA WB), founded in 2018, wishes to identify, analyse, publicize and help build the architectural culture specific to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (WBF). The ICA wants then to form the core of the architectural culture in WBF with the aim to create a cultural network of reference of architecture and encourage its development. It references all the activities related to the architectural culture in WBF.28

Those institutions are very active to the promotion and spread of the discipline in Belgium, but they do act alone. But the architectural culture is more than an institute, it gathers several actors at different scale who participate to the building of this culture. The decision-makers, with the emergence of the Bouwmeester to ensure an ensemble vision of the territorial development, the schools of architecture, some associations organising some debates or building some reflections, the magazines… and of course the

26 Vai.be / based in Antwerp in the cultural and art centre of deSingle in a former industrial building. The building of the VAI is a new structure in addition to the ancient volume.

27 Brusselsmuseums.be / CIVA has three sites, a library in Ixelles, the archives in Schaerbeek and the third, the Kanal Centre Pompidou, is still on process to become a huge exhibition and seminar space into the former Citroen factory in Brussels.

28 Ica-wb.be / The new institute has no physical building to organise its events. “ICA is not a place, it is some places. It travels, goes to meet the actors of territory and animates this cultural network through series of exhibitions, visits, conferences, workshops and animations.”

architects themselves. All together they constitute the architectural culture and share it through different mediums in many ways.

The expression of those actors in the city landscape is truly important in order to create an experience or a reference point for architecture. The question of the place in the city to create a sort of hub where the architectural culture generates a sort of neighbourhood accompanied with a strong identity is crucial in the development of this promotion. Emerging as a new way of thinking the urban fabric, the adaptive reuse concept wishes to transform some existing infrastructures to allow them to thrive again. The heritage in action becomes an answer to the matter of identity and sustainability of our cities and appears as an answer to the friction between architectural culture and its (historic) environment.

In reaction to the massive destruction of modernist buildings, a growing interest emerged in the architectural discipline for the conservation of the modernist heritage. During the first half of the XXth century, architects started to work on the integration of their work within the historical context and find it an interesting challenge, while in the second half of the XXth century, they proposed a global vision of the city and a more brutalist approach. Those modernist architectures represent a part of our history and culture of our nation. They constitute the architectural heritage of a place and possess historic values.29

The modernist architecture gave to the urban fabric of post-industrial cities some concrete meta-structures modifying their landscape. Those objects are suffering from disgrace in the 29 GÜLTEKIN Eren, Heritage and preservation of Modern architecture, National Technical University of Athens, 2019

society and are said to disfigure the cities faces. But slowly making their place into the heritage consciousness, the modernist architecture has a strong potential to promote the architectural culture and present them as rooted in our history.

Then, giving a new powerful use to the modern built heritage comes to shift the negative connotation of important places to a positive meaning. Creating then an architectural hub in a modernist ensemble allows us to give a sense of renew to this last century minimalists but brutalists structures. They are the expression of the modernist perception of life where architecture is under great revolution and is the base of the contemporary architecture as an archetype. The expression of these structures translates a certain freedom and pragmatism that is not dictated by facade rules or aesthetic codes. The functions form the direct image and the clear meaning of the building which correspond to our XXIst century society. Then, the modernist architecture has a strong potential and some intrinsic values to become a rooted iconic place in the city to present the architectural culture.

The discipline promotion makes sense if it takes place in important structures with a nascent interest by the population because it creates a mystery and contemporary re-appropriation of ‘what used to be’ disliked forms. Those places generate a neighbourhood with a mixed program to give a multi-functional medium to share this architectural culture while enhancing them. Indeed, modernist ensembles are the expression of a powerful reinterpretation of life during the XXth century and slowly begin to be part of the heritage. They are the image of a post-industrial civilisation and an important period of the history.

Atelier Bouwmeester, Ravenstein Gallery, Brussels

Atelier Bouwmeester, Ravenstein Gallery, Brussels, David Bergé - A Distinct Effort, 2018

The modernist city, especially in Belgium, is an important period for the urban landscape with an important production of fascinating buildings. This part of the urban history changed the face of our cities emerging a new lifestyle, a new relationship to architecture. A big part of the Belgian identity comes from those modernists’ mutations. In terms of quality, but also of style, the modern period is today part of the major built heritage. It is again a period where the architects created remarkable structures with a delicate approach of ergonomic places. Today, the sensibility towards the build heritage is becoming a philosophy in the future of the city, and the modernist heritage needs to be enhanced as it is part of the identity of our country and an important part of the Belgian history. The adaptive reuse become a new code for the society and the architectural culture. Two examples in Brussels of institutions involved in the promotion and creation of architectural culture took place in a process of reusing the modernist city. First the Vlaams Bouwmeester office in the Ravenstein Gallery in the centre of the capital close to the Bozar palace and the Central station. The modernist commercial gallery is today considered as a bright piece of architecture from that movement. The Bouwmeester took place in the rotunda and present his work to the public by organising some exhibitions or simply showing it by the window. The atelier reuses the space in a very delicate way, in harmony with the modernist style of the gallery. The second example is the architecture faculty of Brussels University in Ixelles. The former radio-centre facing the Flagey square and the Ixelles ponds, is a modernist ensemble reconverted into a multifunctional area where the architecture faculty participates to the identity of the neighbourhood. The Brussels architects Lhoas & Lhoas respected the soul of the building as it

becomes a vibrant area dedicated to architecture. The atmosphere of the neighbourhood is clearly augmented by this modernist reuse.

The potential to generate iconic places by reusing some important modernist places for architectural actors participating to the promotion of the culture is huge. It somehow enhances the Belgian identity and creates nice places in the city. The architectural culture becomes then much more than a discipline, it sets up some interesting points and actively participates to everyday life.

Flagey square, Ixelles

PART OF THE CITY

This chapter will observe the place of modernism in the city and in the society. It will present the initiatives to protect the modernist heritage and promote its place in Brussels. Then, this chapter will present the fall of modernism in Liège and the potential of the Kennedy ensemble, located in the heart of the city to restore its place in the city.

In Belgium, the modernist vision vigorously modified the face of the country. During the second half of the XXth century, the urban policy for many cities was the introduction of bureaucracy and large road development. The consequence of this policy is the destruction of several working-class neighbourhoods. In Brussels for example, the profusion of modern project, and particularly the transformation of the north district into a business district, triggered many populistic protest. The word “bruxellisation” appeared in the 1970’s to name the ravages of the modernisation of the capital.

In 2000, a collective of architects and geographers, named Disturb, was formed in Brussels around the demolition-reconstruction project of the Martini tower. Disturb developed its activity towards the promotion of the modernist architecture and its heritage figure. The collective defends places that emanate from modernist architecture, it is that they are ‘exemplary’ places, presented as ‘rare’ in Brussels. Disturb criticise the lack of quality in the contemporary architecture due to a certain political timidity, the existing cronyism between the politics and several architecture offices, and the imaginary for some associations like the Atelier de recherche et d’action urbaines (ARAU) of a pastiche city. “It would be a question of reappropriate these gestures and at the urban level, to consider the discontinuous nature of the urban fabric as a driving force for creation, and no longer to patch up the city.”30 Today, the modernist architecture in Brussels aims at defining an strong identity for the

30 COMHAIRE Gaël, Activisme urbain et politiques architecturales à Bruxelles : le tournant générationnel, L’Information géographique, vol. 76, no. 3, 2012

country and gets a real place in the architectural heritage consciousness.

In Liège, the modernist period was also synonym of a traumatic event from which demolitions and expropriations arise. The ensemble of Droixhe in the north of the town turned out to gain a negative connotation and the expression of an insecure neighbourhood. In 2008, seven of the thirteen towers were destroyed after several years of debates and attempts for renovation. But this event was undoubtedly inevitable following the financial crisis and the negative meaning that the modernist architecture suffers from. A real disinterest in this style marked the deep decadence in the entire city for the modernist architecture. The renovation of the Val Benoit is the expression of the sudden regain of interest in the XXth century architecture in Liège. The architecture office from the region BaumansDeffet are in charge to give a second breath to the former industrial building at the south fringe of town. The project will house some, educational areas, economic and cultural spaces, dwellings and a restaurant. This project is maybe the first durable strategy of renovation of a modernist building in Liège. But the distance with the city centre and the isolate character of the ensemble seems to brake with the example that this project can give in the modernist revival in Liège.

The Kennedy ensemble, situated in the heart of the city, suffered as well of this negative meaning given to the modernist ideas. But the authority expressed a disinterest for this building and wants to move all the cultural activities in a new building. The ensemble completed in 1971 is yet perceived as the most iconic expression of the brutalist modernism in Liège. It constitutes maybe the only lever that can promote the

Demolition process of the seven East towers, 2008

Val Benoit, interior courtyard of the renovated bloc, Baumans-Deffet, 2016

modernist era as heritage for the city. As the voice of the regeneration of an entire neighbourhood, but also of the cultural expression during the last fifty years, the building has a true potential to become the main figure of the shift interest towards modernism. A new identity around the architectural culture would allow the Kennedy ensemble to become a real hub in the city but moreover to be an active public area in relation to its users. In order to prevent from crisis in the architectural debate, and to give the architect a real role in the development of the city; a mixed program with different actors of the architectural culture would set a strong image for the modernist ensemble in the city. The Kennedy ensemble would thus become the image of the re-appropriation of the modernist heritage in Liège and be the expression of the potential of adaptive reuse of those architectures in order to reinvent the city.

PROGRAM

In this chapter, the mixed program around the architectural culture will be presented. It will look at all the different functions that frame the discipline and the possible interactions with the public or between the actors themselves. Then, a surface analysis of the program and surfaces for the architecture faculty will be presented.

The Chiroux library and cultural centre were the biggest public library in Wallonia and were at the time a very important cultural place in the city. Since the authority announced in 2018 the intention to move the library in a new building further from the centre it is high time to redefine a new identity for this great piece of modern brutalist architecture in town. Close to Liège University headquarter and just a street from the St Paul Cathedral, this place aspires to become an important cultural area for creation. The architecture faculty, who is actually in deep mutation, perfectly aims to regenerate the neighbourhood. But the complexity of the building

tends to add other functions and aims at creating a cultural hub. Architecture becomes more than a program, it becomes a vibrant identity for the modernist ensemble.

The Kennedy ensemble meta-structure allows to create a rich program with several actors that could really find their place in such a project. Indeed, the idea is to create a dynamic place where those actors could meet together and share with the public. The difference actors are almost all involved into the architectural culture from the education to the promotion and the decision making. The project would gather the following functions and protagonists :

Architecture faculty for the University of Liège : Since the merger of the two highschools for architecture in Liège (Institut Lambert Lombard and the Ecole supérieure d’architecture de Saint Luc), in 2010, into one single faculty of architecture for the University of Liège, the faculty goes

through many complications to create a real program to suit perfectly for the education of architecture. Moreover, since the merge, the courses are spread on the two former buildings that are not appropriate to nowadays expectations of an architecture faculty. Following the election of Jaques Defer (dates unknown) as the director of the faculty in 2019, the faculty is in deep mutation. The Kennedy ensemble constitutes a prime location for the renew of the faculty due to its flexible structures, wide modernist architecture and place in the city. Indeed, the building is located in the main axis of the rue de l’Université, with the headquarter of University, the recent auditoriums for the University close to the Royal Opera; and the Zoology Institute where the University has some laboratories and a big auditorium. The ensemble seems finally the best place, in the historical centre, to create a new architecture faculty.

Exhibition space : It is important in an architecture hub to have a large space dedicated to exhibition in order to share the discipline with the public. The exhibition space would allow to present the architecture student works but also to organise some external exhibitions.

Auditorium : Several conference cycles could be organised by the protagonists of the project, and the faculty, who will mostly use the recent auditoriums close-by could also use the auditorium for many occasions.

Liège Bouwmeester Office : In 2019, the authority announced the intention to create a Bouwmeester office for Liège Métropole as already exist in Flanders, Charleroi and Brussels. The Bouwmeester function would be an important character of the project as

this position would become a major actor in the politic of the city, but also the figure of the architectural identity for Liège.

urbAgora association : They are a prominent association in Liège organising, documenting and nourish the urban debate. The association founded in 2008 in the city organise some debates, workshops and small exhibition about urbanism.

Institut Culturel d’Architecture WallonieBruxelles (ICA WB) : The cultural institute has the role to promote the architectural culture in Wallonia and Brussels region. They organise several events such as workshops, conferences, reflexions debates, exhibitions and would find in this project a valuable work space with all the infrastructures needed to promote the architectural culture. Association Royale des Architectes de Liège (ARALG) : The association founded in 1891, gather almost 150 architects in the region of Liège. They organise some meetings almost every month to exchange, meet some professionals, share experience and welcome the young architects in the working life.

Library : Important for the faculty but also interesting towards the architectural culture promotion ambitions, a public library with a collection of publications in the field of architecture, art, history, urbanism or design; participates to the cultural aspirations of the project.

Art class : This space part of the architecture faculty also have the potential to live at several moment of the day, some craft workshops could be organised for external groups in the evening or during the weekend.

This mixed program has the aim to give a new breath to the Kennedy ensemble and wants to give a clear identity to the neighbourhood. Those protagonists of the architectural culture gathered in one place would foster a positive sense of emulation and create a real hub in one of the most beautiful piece of modernist architecture in Liège.

CONCEPT

This chapter and the following documents have the intention to give a look at the concept of the reuse process and the allocation of the different spaces of the building in relation to its environment. They represent the whole aim of the design for the reuse of the Kennedy ensemble.

The faculty takes place in the trapezoidal shape building following the opportunity to have wide rooms for the ateliers. On the ground floor level, the big entrance hall of the faculty becomes a mix used space, flexible following the needs, and can house some exhibitions of the student works but some external ones as well, lectures or events. On the two upper floors, the large spaces are dedicated to the classrooms, ateliers and are free to use, flexible depending on the classes On the roof, a minimalist volume is added for the personal workspace for each student.

The bridge building becomes a foyer where students, teachers and staff members

can gather for lunch or any time of the day. It is a space handled by the students and is open any time. This space can be used for late events or even students’ parties thanks to its privileged place and its own entrance.

The rotunda volume is dedicated to the public or semi-public functions : the associations, the Bouwmeester, an auditorium and the library. The auditorium can be used by the faculty but also by the other actors of the ensemble for any events or conference. The library is a specialised collection of architectural, urbanism, design publications and is open to the students of the faculty but also to the public. All the functions of the ensemble are interconnected to create a positive emulation between them due to the possible exchanges.

The project aims at respecting, preserving and highlight the concrete structure that participate at the soul of the building. To reach a contrasting atmosphere but also an elegant

design to the ensemble of operations on the building, all the furniture and partitions are made out of glass, galvanised steel or concrete.

The urban space is also designed to give more space to the pedestrians while also respecting the modernist character of the neighbourhood. An esplanade is created in front of the entrance hall where students can gather but also giving the opportunity to have an outdoor space for some events. On the Place des Carmes, the roundabout is removed to give more room for the connection between the square, the rue St Paul coming from the Place de la Cathedrale and the new esplanade.

R+1

R+1 SCHEMES

entrance hall - printing point - circulations kennedy

tower entrance - circulations atelier patio

foyer - cafeteria entrance - circulations associations (urbAgora - ICA WB - ARALG) library entrance

R+2

R+2 SCHEMES

R+3

R+3 SCHEMES

printing point - photo studio - circulations kennedy tower circulations student atelier patio model studio

laser cut - 3D printer library

R+4

R+4

kennedy tower - appartments library

SCHEMES

SCHEMES

SCHEMES

SCHEMES

EE

SCHEMES

FF

FF

SCHEMES

SCHEMES

TEXTURES

galvenised steel

fixed furniture

window frames

stairs + guardrail

opaque doors

roof extention (structure + finalisation)

concrete blocs

new opaque partitions

white curtains

create seperations in the mixed used areas

(exhibition hall, ateliers, classrooms,...)

raw concrete

existing structure (post + beam + slab)

sammode brueghel

lightings

green tiling

finalisation in the bathrooms

walls

result chairs (mixed colors)

chairs for the working areas

CONCLUSION

Modernism is an architectural style from the XXth century and raised in Europe after the First World War. The movement brought a large upgrade in the sanitary conditions as well as increasing the amount of dwellings in the cities. But after the Second World war, and with the rise of capitalism, modernism started to modify the structure and the face of European cities. The ancient urban fabric was perceived at the time as outdated and not corresponding to the aspirations of the ‘modern city’. It was seen as outdated, unsuitable for the new hygiene codes and not adapted to the massive arrival of cars in the city. The modernist architects had a totally new vision and approach for urbanism. In a context of reconstruction following WWII, and the quest of a new identity, the modernists proposed a complete revision of the urban codes. Indeed, the city became vertical leaving wider space on the ground for car trafficking and nature. It is also a new way of thinking the relations within the society. But this utopia that undoubtedly change the face and gave a new image to European cities,

went through a sort of disgrace.

At the end of the XXth century, modernist estates became some criminality foyers due to the impoverishment of the inhabitants who began to feel insecurity in their neighbourhood. Several estates gained a negative reputation and the population started to leave those ensembles, only people who couldn’t afford to leave where forced to stay. Then The comparison to penitential architecture became viral for the modernist movement. Many estates were destroyed after a short period of time following the disinterest for those buildings with the aim however to reduce the criminality in these ensemble and find a better balance in the scale of the city. In the end, the modernist movement, with the fall of the highrise estates added to the decrease of capitalism, gained a very adverse meaning for the population.

Nevertheless, it appeared finally that modernism rises interest for an increasing amount of people. New generations find in the modernist

period a certain devotion that brings a shift in the meaning of those XXth century productions. Many projects seem to bring a new identity to those modernists buildings that becomes real part of the city but we can see that this re-appropriation of the past utopia is hard to convince the majority.

In Liège, the modernist period deeply changed the face of the city with the construction of several high rise estates and the restructuring of several neighbourhoods. The Kennedy ensemble, completed in 1971 by the architects Jean Poskin and Henri Bonhomie, is one of the most representative example of the modernist reform in Liège. In the heart of the transformation project of the André Dumont neighbourhood, said to be a district from which all life disappeared in the middle of the the century, the Kennedy ensemble used to be a real model for the cultural life in Liège. The neighbourhood was transformed to adapt the city to the car trafficking and solve the West/East road connection trough the city. The urban transformation is a clear expression of the modernist ideology to give more place to the car, to separate the pedestrian and car flows, and to build higher. The Kennedy ensemble is one of the three big ensemble built around this urban regeneration and is still considered today to be one of the most succeeded expression of brutalism of the last century in the city.

Despite its remarkable qualities, the Kennedy ensemble doesn’t achieve unanimity and is not seen today as a potential building to reinvent the city. Indeed, since its completion in 1971, no more investments were made in the ensemble. The cultural hub that constituted the Chiroux library at the foot of the ensemble is today a shadow of what it ones was. The authority doesn’t find interest in the modernist

building and no future is announced after the library relocation in 2022. This testifies to a lack of architectural recognition towards the building and a certain ignorance of the urban potential that can result from the renovation or reconversion of the ensemble.

The reuse of the Kennedy ensemble means then that it has the possibility to become a lever for the revival in Liège. The architectural culture appears then as an answer to make the modernist movement part of the society again. It is actually a response to become an icon and the pioneer of the urban regeneration on historical bases to promote the architectural culture within a modernist ensemble. It becomes a place where architecture is debated everyday and where the ‘architectural trends’ are made discussed and developed, but moreover, share with the public. It enhances then modernism as a pride in the identity of our cities. This reuse brought back life within the building that itself becomes a real part of the society. It comes as a starting point to the acceptance and protection of the modernist heritage. It allows to give a new experience, thus a new dynamic meaning towards modernism.

ANNEXES

R+1, existing situation

Relief master plan for the André Dumont neighbourhood, Jean Royer, 1961

Design for the Athénée Royal, Roger Kangiester, 1976

Design for the residential and offices Vertbois-St Jaques ensemble, P. Copaye, S. Rorive, J. Simonis, 1971

Aerial view of the neighbourhood of Droixhe, undated photo

Aerial view of the Val Benoit, undates photo

New cultural development pole, ongoing project, Service des Bâtiments de la Province de Liège, delivering 2022

Master plan for the Bavère Neighbourhood, Liège, 2017

BIBLIOGRAPHY PUBLICATIONS

CALINESCU Matei, Modernity, Modernism, Modernization: Variations on Modern Themes, Symploke, 1-20, 1993

CHARLIER Sébastien, FRANKIGNOULLE Pierre, Towards a vertical architecture, in The Apartment Building, Real Estate Architecture, 2018

CHARLIER Sébastien, MOOR Thomas (dir.), Guide de l’architecture moderne et contemporaine 18952014, Editions Mardaga & Cellule Architecture de la FWB, Bruxelles, 2014

COMHAIRE Gaël, Activisme urbain et politiques architecturales à Bruxelles : le tournant générationnel, L'Information géographique, vol. 76, no. 3, 2012

DE DECKER Pascal, NEWTON Caroline, At the Fall of Utopia, Urbani Izziv, vol. 20, no. 2, 2009

DE FIJTER Arie, OCCHIUTO Rita, HAUTECLER Paul, The Future of the Past: Architectural Heritage Guides as Handbooks for City Decoding and as Blueprints for Urban Design, 2013

FITTING Peter, Urban planning/utopian dreaming: Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh today, Utopian Studies, 2002

GÜLTEKIN Eren, Heritage and preservation of Modern architecture, National Technical University of Athens, 2019

LEJEUNE Jean, La renaissance du Pays de Liège et l'A.S.B.L. Le Grand Liège : Œuvre, Esprit, Buts, Liège, Le Grand Liège, 1949

LEJEUNE Jean, L'avenir De Liège Et Les Travaux Publics, Liège, Thone, 1964

LEJEUNE Jean, Liège : Du Passé à L'avenir, Liège, Jean Lejeune, 1970

MOORS Marie, Reviving the modernist utopia, Trace - Notes on Adaptive Reuse, vol. 2 (forthcoming), 2020

NIA Hourakhsh Ahmad, ROKHSANEH Rahbarianyazd, Aesthetics of Modern Architecture: A Semiological Survey on the Aesthetic Contribution of Modern Architecture, Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2020

SCHUMACHER Patrik, The Stages of Capitalism and the Styles of Architecture, ASA web-magazine & (forthcoming): UED (Urban Environment Design) Magazine, London, 2016

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VAN EYCK Aldo, Het verhaal van een andere gedachte, Forum 9, 1959

INTERNET ARTICLES

BUSH-BROWN Albert, WATKIN David John, Western architecture: After World War II, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2018, URL : https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-architecture/After-World-War-II

MARSHALL Colin, Pruitt-Igoe: the troubled high-rise that came to define urban America – a history of cities in 50 buildings - day 21, The Guardian, 2015, URL : https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/ apr/22/pruitt-igoe-high-rise-urban-america-history-cities

ROWE Hayley A, The Rise and Fall of Modernist Architecture, Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse, 2011, URL : http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1687

MASTER THESIS

STRAET Tommy, Un aspect de l’urbanisme des années 1950-1970 à Liège, Étude du quartier André Dumont-Bertholet et l’avenue M. Destenay, Master thesis, University of Liège, 2016

COURS NOTES

HOUBART Claudine, Histoire et théories de la conservation-restauration, Histoire et théories de la conservation-restauration, La seconde reconstruction, Cesare Brandi (1906-1988) et la Charte de Venise (1964), University of Liège, 2019

MONOGRAPHY

BEGUIN Aloys (dir.), LANTAIR Georges-Eric (dir.), Monographique - Complexe des Chiroux, Architecture XXe / Reconversion, University of Liège, 2017

WEBSITES

ASSOCIATION ROYALE DES ARCHITECTES LIEGOIS (ARALG), URL : https://www.aralg.be/aralg/apropos/

ARCHITECTURA, Bientôt un bouwmeester à Liège ?, 2019, URL : https://architectura.be/fr/ actualite/34041/bientot-un-bouwmeester-a-liege

CIVA BRUSSELS, URL : https://www.civa.brussels/fr

DOCOMOMO, URL : https://docomomo.be

INSTITUT CULTUREL D’ARCHITECTURE WALLONIE BRUXELLES (ICA WB), URL : https://ica-wb.be

LIEGE , La bibliothèque des Chiroux, 2019, URL : https://www.liege.be/fr/vie-communale/projet-de-ville/ grands-projets/a-venir/la-bibliotheque-des-chiroux

UNESCO, The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement, URL : https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1321/

URBAGORA, URL : https://urbagora.be

VLAAMS ARCHITECTUUR INSTITUTE (VAI), URL : https://www.vai.be

51N4E, Métropolitan hybrids, URL : https://www.51n4e.com/projects/espace-nord