Encounters

noAarchitecten

A contemplative study room for students in Hasselt turns out to have been a prison cell. A facade introduces reading into the city and gives the Plantin-Moretus Museum collection a (protective) face. In their projects, noArchitecten try to go beyond the visual experience to arrive at an all-round spatial experience.

noAarchitecten have been able to create a form profile for themselves from the very beginning, with both notable small buildings and several large-scale public buildings including the Petrol electricity cabin in Antwerp and the spatial metamorphosis of Menen town hall.

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In the course of time a seemingly intuitive design approach transformed into a proper design strategy. noAarchitecten takes up a position subtly reconciling the principal, the building/assignment and the future user. The firm sometimes even opts for different approaches within a single building. The result is contradiction and complexity. An ambiguity which this collective explores by means of a meticulous plan and a precise selection of colors and materials. This architecture is never neutral. It is intended to uplift, but never becomes pedantic. It is specific, offers a tailor-made location and gives an almost ritual dimension to everyday actions.

The exhibition invites the visitor to walk, see, feel, study and think.

25.09.2014 - 04.01.2015

Flemish Architecture Institute, Antwerp (BE)

Contemporary Architecture

Collaborators :
noAarchitecten and Christoph Grafe
Coproduction : deSingel International Arts Centre, Antwerp (BE)

Function :
Curator and production management

Photography :
Stijn Bollaert