Under the horizon of the University. A chapter in architectural education in Belgium (1980-1990)

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Published: Jun 1, 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/clara.002.0160

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Jean-Louis Genard
Faculté d'Architecture La Cambre Horta - Université libre de Bruxelles
Judith le Maire
Faculté d'Architecture La Cambre Horta - Université libre de Bruxelles
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5186-3170
Typhaine Moogin
Faculté d'Architecture La Cambre Horta - Université libre de Bruxelles

Abstract

Now that architectural education in Belgium has been fully university-based for three years, it seemed appropriate and even necessary to look back at the beginnings of this integration. In this respect, the 1980s correspond to the time when the expression 'architecture at the university' is still followed by a question mark. Based on an exploration of recent archives, this article traces the main concerns of a period of intense reflective activity for architectural education in Belgium. Between commission reports, speeches at the beginning of the academic year and communications at colloquia, many points of view were exchanged. Views on a discipline that is struggling to define and identify itself. Views of a profession 'in crisis', faced with the evolution of a construction sector in the process of specialisation. Finally, visions of a teaching system that must respond to these changes and where the university is emerging as the best remedy, the promised land to prepare the architect of the 21st century. What hopes or fears did the university embody almost thirty years ago? And what about today? What have we gained, lost, forgotten? These are the questions the authors wish to raise. For, if the expression 'architecture at the university' has lost its question mark, there is still a long way to go before the end point.

Article Details

Issue
No. 2 (2014): Brussels mosque as a project
Section
Thematic section (secondary)
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Author Biographies

Jean-Louis Genard, Faculté d'Architecture La Cambre Horta - Université libre de Bruxelles

Jean-Louis Genard is a philosopher and doctor of sociology. He is an ordinary professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Université libre de Bruxelles of which he was also dean. He is also a lecturer at the Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis. He is the director of the GRAP, Research Group on Public Action of the Free University of Brussels. He is editor-in-chief of the electronic journal of the Association internationale des sociologues de langue française (AISLF), SociologieS. He has published numerous works, including Sociologie de l'éthique (L'Harmattan, 1992), La Grammaire de la responsabilité (Cerf, 2000), Les pouvoirs de la culture (Labor, 2001), Enclaves ou la ville privatisée (with P. Burniat, La Lettre volée, 2003), Qui a peur de l'architecture? Livre blanc de l'architecture contemporaine en Communauté française de Belgique (with P. Lhoas, La Lettre Volée, La Cambre, 2004), L'évaluation des politiques publiques au niveau régional (with S. Jacob and F. Varone, Peter Lang, 2007), Action publique et subjectivité (with F. Cantelli, L.G.D.J., 2007), Critical Tools, les instruments de la critique (with H. Heynen, La Lettre Volée, Nethca, 2012), as well as numerous articles. He is co-editor of the Action publique collection at Peter Lang and of the Architecture et aménagement du territoire collection at Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles. His work focuses mainly on ethics, responsibility, public policies, in particular social policies, city policies, culture and cultural policies, art and architecture, as well as on epistemological issues.

Judith le Maire, Faculté d'Architecture La Cambre Horta - Université libre de Bruxelles

Judith le Maire is an architect and has a doctorate in art history. She is a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture of the Université libre de Bruxelles. She directs the Centre des laboratoires associés pour la recherche en architecture - C.L.A.R.A. Her work focuses on participatory processes in architecture and urbanism (La grammaire participative en architecture et urbanisme 1904-1968, Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2014) as well as on the media related to these processes such as city exhibitions (J. le Maire, "L'apprentissage comme pilier de la grammaire participative dans l'architecture et l'urbanisme", in Y. Bonny et al, Espaces de vie, espaces enjeux, entre investissements ordinaires et mobilisations politiques, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2011, p. 203-218) or walking (J. le Maire, "Arpenter, guider, jalonner. La marche, outil des processus participatifs en architecture et urbanisme du XXe siècle", Clara architecture recherche, Mardaga - Faculté d'architecture de l'ULB, February 2013, n°1, p. 135-150). She is the promoter of a concerted research action, MICMarc, which investigates the emergence of metropolitan identity through the relationships between culture, mobility and territory. Thus, the development of outdoor spaces, the paths ensuring the transition between public space and architecture are at the heart of this investigation, which she has been carrying out in particular through the coordination of ]PYBLIK[, a training course on culture and the professions of public space in Brussels, since 2007. On this subject, she published an article entitled "La place publique contemporaine ou la Piazza Beaubourg" (in La Place publique urbaine dans les anciens Pays-Bas et son contexte européen (XIIe-XXe siècle), Arras, Artois Presse Université, 2007, pp. 295-304). She also addressed the issue of mobility ('Brussels in the 20th century', in Fortifications. Bruxelles, l'émergence de la ville contemporaine, Brussels, Édition CIVA, 2002, p. 70-74) through the transformation of the ramparts of European cities, which is also the subject of the colloquium Boulevards & Rings in Europe, 18th-19th Centuries, which was held in 2013 in Brussels and Reykjavík.

Typhaine Moogin, Faculté d'Architecture La Cambre Horta - Université libre de Bruxelles

Typhaine Moogin is an architect and researcher at the Centre des laboratoires associés pour la recherche en architecture (C.L.A.R.A.) at the Faculty of Architecture of the Université libre de Bruxelles. She is associated with the Hortence (History, Theory and Criticism) and Sasha (Architecture and Human Sciences) laboratories. Under the mandate of FRS-FNRS candidate, she is currently pursuing a doctoral research on architectural prizes in French-speaking Belgium in the 20th century. Her work focuses mainly on architectural mediations (journals, exhibitions, awards) studied as places of construction of the discipline.

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