Discover Benelux | Flemish Interiors | Design with Distinction
Centre for general wellbeing CAW De Kempen, Turnhout.
Expressiveness, rawness and light TEXT: MICHIEL STOL | PHOTOS: ARCHITECTS IN MOTION
Light is probably one of the most important tools for an architect. Both natural and artificial light are elements that give any type of building its soul. “The best natural light in the world I found in Brazil. It gave me so much inspiration for my work,” explains Bart Janssens, associate and co-founder of Architects in Motion (AIM) in Turnhout, one of the leading architectural firms in Belgium. Brazil has always been a personal inspiration for Janssens, ever since he started travelling there years ago. “The architecture of the country attracted me from the moment I came into contact with 54 | Issue 58 | October 2018
buildings and houses with an expressive and straightforward character, with the use of raw materials like brick and mortar and the use of natural light. Back then, people spoke about ‘brutalism’. I would not call it that anymore. Architecture has evolved so much that you cannot speak of one movement or another anymore.”
it, especially the architecture in the capital Brasilia and the works of Oscar Niemeyer, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Artigas, Lima and the gardens of Burle Marx. It is about expressive buildings and the way they work with light and raw materials. I have not seen any better natural light, that enhances the materials and composition, in my life than I have in Brazil. It gives the architecture so much more soul.”
AIM and Turnhout
That Brazilian building style resembles a lot of the building style from the 1960s in Belgium, in which the DNA from Architects in Motion resides and how they design today. “It is what became known as ‘the School of Turnhout’:
The architect firm in its current shape was formed in 2002, by Bart Janssens and Luc Vanhout, son of renowned architect Carli Vanhout, one of the masters of the School of Turnhout. “AIM is a horizontally structured group of architect-specialists, with six partners managing the projects.