Lucien Kroll

Abstract

The architect Lucien Kroll (1927 - ) talks to two female architecture students in February 2014. He recalls his beginnings and a project for the then president of Rwanda, his entry into the project for the campus of the Université Catholique de Louvain in Woluwé-Saint-Lambert, then the Alma metro station, the break-up of his mission, the invitations he received to work in France and the Netherlands, the curiosity that Henry Van de Velde had aroused in him, the exhibition at the Lieu Unique in Nantes, his relationship with Patrick Bouchain, and his interest, tinged with perplexity, in the projects by Lacaton & Vassale. This exchange became an opportunity for Lucien Kroll to express himself on the Neighbourhood Contracts in Brussels and the institutionalisation of participation in Belgium, on the current renovations of the Alma metro station, on the social costs of the standard and the respect of the rule, the ecological externalities of concrete construction, but also on the pitfalls of participation when a second generation of inhabitants/users invests the premises.