Building community

Architecture Day looks at how we interact with the built environment

It’s an illusion to think that the pending issues of our time – scarcity, pollution, depletion of raw materials – can be solved with technical ingenuity alone. Such is the opinion of Christoph Grafe, the new director of the Flemish Architecture Institute (VAi), who argues in favour of a cultural approach to sustainability. “We don’t really need a technological revolution,” he says, “but a change in mentality that will make us more creative and more economical in how we deal with our built environment.”

This Saturday, during the biennial Architecture Day in Flanders, you’ll be able to see how this works. More than 100 projects, buildings and public spaces will be open to visitors. There will be guided tours and debates on the hot topics in modern-day architecture, such as sustainability, group housing and the need for user participation during the design process of major city projects.

Sustainability is not only about materials and energy but also about dealing with population growth, something that will have an undeniable impact on our lifestyles. And “let’s hope, also on the mentality of our project developers,” says landscape architect Denis Dujardin. “They will have to abandon their individualistic culture of allotments in favour of a more social infrastructure that connects people.”

Flemish architects De Vylder Vinck Taillieu, whose first retrospective exhibition is currently on show in Antwerp’s deSingel, has a similar goal. “Architecture is not about a building’s energy consumption, but about finding the right place to enjoy the sun in your house,” says De Vylder. “We want to bring architecture back to the human desire to be in a pleasant environment. It requires fantasy, but it creates sustainable living as well.”

You’ll be able to visit several buildings designed by the Ghent-based threesome, like the rehearsal rooms of performance production house LOD and of dance company Les Ballets C de la B, which are housed in Ghent’s famous De Bijloke complex. The former hospital site also houses the city museum STAM, the art academy KASK and a concert hall, all designed by different architects.

In Antwerp, you can take a look behind the scenes of the 19th-century Bourla Theatre. The former storage room of the building now lodges the offices of Het Toneelhuis, also designed by De Vylder.

But for something really unconventional: Two young architects, Thomas Cattryse and Simon De Waepenaere, invite you on an architectural and anthropological expedition along the E19 motorway. This urban safari takes you from the car park of deSingel to the logistic centre Hazeldonk near the Dutch border and back again.