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In 1964, the Provincial Committee for Home Culture of West-Flanders (Belgium) questioned the format of its competitions for the best arranged, furnished and maintained home. They were wondering if that formula was still up-to-date. Was it still pedagogically acceptable to judge people’s homes, based on one snapshot of reality? Did they reach with that instrument the right people, namely the youngsters who want to buy or rent a house and create an own home? Was another formula not more appropriate? Those questions voice exactly the shift that was taking place during the last third of the twentieth century. It encompasses a transition from education to ‘edu-tainment’, a shift from rather traditional exhibitions on housing and home culture to a kind of show houses avant-la-lettre, a specialization from houses for the masses to houses for certain target groups, and a focus from a “good” home with all necessary domestic equipment to an ecologically sustainable home made from durable materials. By drawing on numerous sources of publications, catalogues, books, archival documents and websites produced by several governmental and socio-cultural organisations, this paper elucidates how a paradigm shift took place in home culture exhibitions in Flanders during the second half of the twentieth century. It demonstrates how home-related concepts, such as comfort, have shifted in meaning and how the relation with the public has altered. Eventually, the paper analyses some present-day initiatives in light of the twentieth century. For example, living labs are rooted in choices made during the 1970s and 1980s. Analysing current initiatives reveals again a shift in “exhibitions”, as the content, the stakeholders and the role of the government as initiator of housing exhibitions has changed again. Based on these insights we conclude with some reflections on possible positive future evolutions as well as critical ideas about the impact of the shift in roles.

In the aftermath of World War II, Belgium was facing a serious housing shortage. The Christian-Democrats, who dominated the political landscape, answered the housing need by the encouragement of detached single family houses. The social-democrats on the other hand, championed high-rise buildings and large housing complexes in urban areas. In Antwerp, where the social-democrats were in power since the interwar-period, the modernist apartment block was not only seen as a good solution, but also as a promotional instrument for their enlightened policy. In a belt around the city, mixed development settlements with high-rises were developed. In the North of Antwerp, the Luchtbal-estate of Hugo Van Kuyck (1954-1962) emerged, in the West, Europark designed by Aelbrecht, Bruynswijck, Moureau and Wathelet (1968-1972), and in the South, the Kiel-estate designed by Renaat Braem (1953). Although all the three complexes are modernist, they completely differ in concept, architectural quality, degree of detailing, etcetera. While the oldest estate, the Kiel-estate is appreciated as a very prestigious, avant-garde social housing project, the youngest one, Europark, is rather seen as a watered down version of modernist housing. Whereas Renaat Braem was inspired by the Russian Constructivists and Le Corbusier, Hugo Van Kuyck was influenced by American modernism. This article aims to show the diversity of modernist high rise buildings in the fringe of Antwerp by means of a comparative analysis of the two housing projects, Luchtbal and Kiel.

Because it is representative of the timeframe in which it was created, the high-quality oeuvre of the local modernist Van Steenbergen - historically and theoretically largely unexplored - provides an excellent case for a better understanding of architectural realisations between regionalism and modernism in the interwar period in Flanders. The starting point of this research is that the specificities of modernism and regionalism are not exclusively embedded in historical canons or theoretical frameworks but rather in the local manifestations of these larger narratives. We follow Alan Colquhoun's view that the true meaning of the modern movement lies in 'the unconscious substratum of theory', which must be recognised in the architectural work. Thus, the theoretical view is used to interpret how Van Steenbergen's personal commitment in a local context translates into form. To this end, the three major form-related paradigms of the Modern Movement - the expressive, the functionalist and the monumental - are used to examine three case studies in Deurne (Antwerp): the Unitas Tuinwijk (1923-1932), the Koninklijke Atheneum (1936-1940) and the Deurne Town Hall (1947-1964). We study the architecture of three public programmes with a focus on their formal relationships to public space and the urban level. It concerns a micro-history that consists of three synchronic studies, each based on a paradigm; furthermore, the hybrid forms of the three paradigms describe the diachronic story throughout the oeuvre. We conclude that Van Steenbergen's relationship to modernism and regionalism is not only about form characteristics, but mainly about attitudes, adaptive positions and strategies with which he confronts the issue of form. And with paradigms such as the expressive, the functionalist and the monumental, Van Steenbergen converts these attitudes into (change of) form. With the pragmatic application of these form characteristics and their hybrid forms in the three designs, the oeuvre of Van Steenbergen positions itself in various capacities relative to the public and the community. The architect’s practice becomes a continuous process of negotiation: form, scale and programme are constantly being rethought in relation to social and contextual levels. The oeuvre of the architect aptly shows how the dialectic between modernism and regionalism becomes manifest in the formal and substantive transformations of the paradigms and is materialised in the site-specific approach of the assignment.

The WORKING PAPER SERIES gathers results from the EAHN 2019 Thematic Conference: DISPLACEMENT & DOMESTICITY SINCE 1945: REFUGEES, MIGRANTS AND EXPATS MAKING HOMES. The papers presented draw together different responses regarding the question of displacement and domesticity in various circumstances (e.g., forced, economic, etc.) and in relation to past, present as well as future notions of SPACE, PLACE and ARCHITECTURE. The table of contents responds to the programme of the conference (although not all presenters submitted their full paper), which was designed by the organisers to highlight common and significant themes in the papers. In addition to displacement and domesticity, these themes attempt to untangle notions of HOME, HOUSING, the CITY, GENDER and SHELTER. Therefore, this book of working papers introduces the theme of DISPLACEMENT and DOMESTICITY as a significant one of interdisciplinary investigation for our time. It looks to continue the discussion further – to to provoke and to challenge new questions and perspectives, reconfiguring the scholarly approach to these ideas. REFUGEES, MIGRANTS AND EXPATS MAKING HOMES conference was patronised by the EAHN in collaboration with KU Leuven Department of Architecture, the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium and FWO. ispartof: http://www.a2i-kuleuven.be/portfolio/displacement-domesticity-working-paper-series/ ispartof: DISPLACEMENT & DOMESTICITY SINCE 1945: REFUGEES, MIGRANTS AND EXPATS MAKING HOMES. location:Brussels date:27 Mar - 29 Mar 2019 nrpages: 388 status: Published online

This project investigates how gender and power relations are manifest in the design, performance, and representations of the built environment in the built environment of displaced Nubians, an African population displaced and resettled in 1964 under a development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) scheme. Gendered aspects of dispossession and post-displacement architecture are both under-theorised themes in the available literature; nevertheless, resettled societies are often averse to their built environment, as it does not satisfy their cultural and socio-economic needs. Women in particular often suffer great losses in terms of their status and the quality of spaces they inhabit. The case of Nubians, in particular, is under-studied in most of its aspects. This thesis has four main objectives: first, to spotlight Nubian contemporary issues; second, to shift the paradigm of inquiry on gender and power from western realms by positioning it in an indigenous episteme; third, to revisit the ontological notions of ‘public space’ and ‘the Architect’; and fourth, to Create a theory of Nubian territoriality. A single case-study approach was employed , as this thesis intends to shed light on the displaced Nubian settlement of Qustul, my home village. The project used ethnographic methods to collect and process the data, especially autoethnographies which render me, researcher as well as a displaced citizen, researched. Throughout its course, this thesis has been committed to a reflexive positionality, through which I have been able to listen to a different voice in my head and to see different aspects of a Nubian episteme. I have also experimented with methodologies such as schizocartography, critical discourse analysis, and narrative mapping, being especially concerned with the gendered experience. This research endeavour has produced maps of spaces and spatial tactics that represent resistance against spatial violence. These maps, in addition to the linked oral histories, form a point of departure from which to extract ontological lessons about gendered spatial production and the concepts of public and private space. I have cuddled this doctoral thesis by feminist, afro-feminist, afro-womanist, postcolonial, and indigenous literature; such areas of scholarship acted as theoretical allies and guides for the realisation of the objectives of this thesis. Ultimately, I argue that the built environment of forced resettlement acts as a tool of spatial violence that disenfranchises displaced people, especially women. The theoretical discoveries here contribute to three major debates in 6 spatial studies: first, the debate over public space, as I offer a disruptive critique of “publics”; second, the debate over the role of the architect, as I promote seeing emotional capital in spatial production; and third, the considerable debate surrounding the issue of territoriality. I then present a theorisation of territories of loss in what I term ’disembodied territorialities’, and this doctoral project is eventually used to present the overarching lesson, focused on the performed space rather than the built one.

ispartof: pages:159-166 ispartof: Theory by Design. Architectural research made explicit in the design teaching studio pages:159-166 ispartof: Theory by Design location:Antwerp date:29 Oct - 31 Oct 2012 status: published

The design studio plays a central role in how architecture students learn to become architects. Because of the particular kinds of knowledge involved in designing, and the corresponding ways of learning and teaching adopted in the design studio, interaction between the design studio and theoretical courses is not always straightforward, despite their mutual relevance. The present paper documents and reflects on an attempt at reinforcing the interaction between a particular design studio and a theoretical course, with special attention to inclusive design. Analysis of the students’ work for the design studio and the theoretical course, and feedback from other stakeholders involved, suggests that students who attended both demonstrated a more nuanced understanding of the issues addressed in the theoretical course, and a more responsive design process. While it would be vainly ambitious to claim that there was theory produced out of this one cross-course experiment, the analysis shows that the interaction between designing in the studio and theoretical reflection in the course raised interesting questions and triggered valuable insights, not only about inclusive design, but also about the nature of design in general. ispartof: pages:393-404 ispartof: Theory by Design. Architectural research made explicit in the design teaching studio pages:393-404 ispartof: Theory by Design location:Antwerp date:29 Oct - 31 Oct 2012 status: published