ARCHITECTURAL CULTURE & MODERNIST HERITAGE

The architectural culture will be presented in this chapter as an answer to bring the modernist movement to light. It will try to define what is the architectural culture and its importance in our society. Then present the current institutions in Belgium that promote architecture. Finally, the potential of modernist buildings to promote the architectural culture will be analysed through two examples in Brussels.

Based on the assumption that the architectural culture is everyone’s affaire25, its promotion is almost inexistent and as a result, it is most of the time misunderstood by many. Architecture creates every day’s and everybody’s environment. According to its use-value, it concerns us all as a context to our life. Seen for a large part of the society as a drawer who knows the construction rules, the architect, sometimes, has to deal with clients not really aware of its work.

The promotion of the architectural culture deserves a clear place in the society as a way to make it part of everyone’s consciousness. It should be present in the city as a place to share architectural culture to everybody in order to present it as an artistic and theoretical discipline much more than a tool.

The first collections of architectural documents such as drawings, sketches or models date back to the XIXth century. Those collections were private enterprise and the majority of them where closed to public. Those gathered mainly information about important or monumental buildings: religious edifices, public buildings, palaces, big properties, … It is only during the late previous century that those collections were opened to public and some museums of architecture appeared. They were created to educate the visitor to different aspects of architecture and urbanism. It is in this post World War context that the subjects like the design of cities and buildings, the hygiene and comfort conditions the separation of functions and the public housing projects became highly significant. At the same time, debates on the modern society, the individual rights and freedom or the economic independence appeared as crucial for development. Following this shift of mentality, the condition of the ‘ordinary people’ in their everyday life became important topics in the fields of architecture and urbanism. In our region, three well known museums reflect on themes such as emancipatory of the modern city, the role of history in the process of modernisation or the signification of ordinary everyday architecture : The German Architecture Museum opened in 1984, The Netherland Architecture Institute, created in 1998 and the Cité de l’Architecture in Paris founded in 2007. Those institutions form important keys of the renewal process of their cities concerning the spatial upgrading and gentrification of the urban fabric. Their architecture is also the expression of their influence on their cities.

In Belgium, this institutionalisation of the architectural culture is more recent and aims at defining an identity of the country. Those institutes have the objective to organise some exhibitions, some installations, several visits, set up a conference cycle, debates and some activities and animations to promote and share the discipline at large. Three institutions were created to be the reference institutes:

The Vlaams ArchitectuurInstituut founded in 2001, is the main centre for information about architecture from Flanders and Brussels. It creates a platform for everyone who wants to make, share and experience architecture.26

The CIVA, created in 2016 brings together within a single structure the resources, knowledge and know-how of several cultural associations active in Brussels in the fields of architecture, town planning, landscape and the study of ecosystems. Through its cultural project, CIVA contributes to the development of an architectural, landscape and urban culture as a basis for facing contemporary challenges, with special emphasis on Brussels.27

The Cultural Institute of Architecture

Wallonia-Brussels (ICA WB), founded in 2018, wishes to identify, analyse, publicize and help build the architectural culture specific to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (WBF). The ICA wants then to form the core of the architectural culture in WBF with the aim to create a cultural network of reference of architecture and encourage its development. It references all the activities related to the architectural culture in WBF.28

Those institutions are very active to the promotion and spread of the discipline in Belgium, but they do act alone. But the architectural culture is more than an institute, it gathers several actors at different scale who participate to the building of this culture. The decision-makers, with the emergence of the Bouwmeester to ensure an ensemble vision of the territorial development, the schools of architecture, some associations organising some debates or building some reflections, the magazines… and of course the architects themselves. All together they constitute the architectural culture and share it through different mediums in many ways.

The expression of those actors in the city landscape is truly important in order to create an experience or a reference point for architecture. The question of the place in the city to create a sort of hub where the architectural culture generates a sort of neighbourhood accompanied with a strong identity is crucial in the development of this promotion. Emerging as a new way of thinking the urban fabric, the adaptive reuse concept wishes to transform some existing infrastructures to allow them to thrive again. The heritage in action becomes an answer to the matter of identity and sustainability of our cities and appears as an answer to the friction between architectural culture and its (historic) environment.

In reaction to the massive destruction of modernist buildings, a growing interest emerged in the architectural discipline for the conservation of the modernist heritage. During the first half of the XXth century, architects started to work on the integration of their work within the historical context and find it an interesting challenge, while in the second half of the XXth century, they proposed a global vision of the city and a more brutalist approach. Those modernist architectures represent a part of our history and culture of our nation. They constitute the architectural heritage of a place and possess historic values.29

The modernist architecture gave to the urban fabric of post-industrial cities some concrete meta-structures modifying their landscape. Those objects are suffering from disgrace in the 29 GÜLTEKIN Eren, Heritage and preservation of Modern architecture, National Technical University of Athens, 2019 society and are said to disfigure the cities faces. But slowly making their place into the heritage consciousness, the modernist architecture has a strong potential to promote the architectural culture and present them as rooted in our history.

Then, giving a new powerful use to the modern built heritage comes to shift the negative connotation of important places to a positive meaning. Creating then an architectural hub in a modernist ensemble allows us to give a sense of renew to this last century minimalists but brutalists structures. They are the expression of the modernist perception of life where architecture is under great revolution and is the base of the contemporary architecture as an archetype. The expression of these structures translates a certain freedom and pragmatism that is not dictated by facade rules or aesthetic codes. The functions form the direct image and the clear meaning of the building which correspond to our XXIst century society. Then, the modernist architecture has a strong potential and some intrinsic values to become a rooted iconic place in the city to present the architectural culture.

The discipline promotion makes sense if it takes place in important structures with a nascent interest by the population because it creates a mystery and contemporary re-appropriation of ‘what used to be’ disliked forms. Those places generate a neighbourhood with a mixed program to give a multi-functional medium to share this architectural culture while enhancing them. Indeed, modernist ensembles are the expression of a powerful reinterpretation of life during the XXth century and slowly begin to be part of the heritage. They are the image of a post-industrial civilisation and an important period of the history.

The modernist city, especially in Belgium, is an important period for the urban landscape with an important production of fascinating buildings. This part of the urban history changed the face of our cities emerging a new lifestyle, a new relationship to architecture. A big part of the Belgian identity comes from those modernists’ mutations. In terms of quality, but also of style, the modern period is today part of the major built heritage. It is again a period where the architects created remarkable structures with a delicate approach of ergonomic places. Today, the sensibility towards the build heritage is becoming a philosophy in the future of the city, and the modernist heritage needs to be enhanced as it is part of the identity of our country and an important part of the Belgian history. The adaptive reuse become a new code for the society and the architectural culture. Two examples in Brussels of institutions involved in the promotion and creation of architectural culture took place in a process of reusing the modernist city. First the Vlaams Bouwmeester office in the Ravenstein Gallery in the centre of the capital close to the Bozar palace and the Central station. The modernist commercial gallery is today considered as a bright piece of architecture from that movement. The Bouwmeester took place in the rotunda and present his work to the public by organising some exhibitions or simply showing it by the window. The atelier reuses the space in a very delicate way, in harmony with the modernist style of the gallery. The second example is the architecture faculty of Brussels University in Ixelles. The former radio-centre facing the Flagey square and the Ixelles ponds, is a modernist ensemble reconverted into a multifunctional area where the architecture faculty participates to the identity of the neighbourhood. The Brussels architects Lhoas & Lhoas respected the soul of the building as it becomes a vibrant area dedicated to architecture. The atmosphere of the neighbourhood is clearly augmented by this modernist reuse.

The potential to generate iconic places by reusing some important modernist places for architectural actors participating to the promotion of the culture is huge. It somehow enhances the Belgian identity and creates nice places in the city. The architectural culture becomes then much more than a discipline, it sets up some interesting points and actively participates to everyday life.