Department of Architecture and Urban Planning

Research Projects Theory and History of Architecture

An Architecture of Machines: Francesco di Giorgio’s Opusculum de’ architectura & the praxis of Renaissance architecture
In recent years, environmental efforts in the building sector were mainly concentrated on reducing the operational energy of buildings while a well-considered use of materials is at least as important to further reduce our ecological footprint.
Francesco di Giorgio, folio 2r, Opusculum de’ architectura (c. 1475) London, The British Museum, Nr. 1947,0117.2 © The Trustees of the British Museum
Architectural Histories. The online open access journal of the EAHN
Since early 2013 Architectural Histories is online, the academic publication of the European Architectural History Network ...
Architectural Histories. The online open access journal of the EAHN
Architecture Exhibitions in 'Flanders', 1983-2010
Belgium has never had a national architecture museum or architecture center. At least since the mid-1980s, however, a diffuse landscape emerged of small and mid-sized platforms - organizations as well as gallery spaces - that put architecture on display.
'Homeward, Contemporary Architecture in Flanders', Antwerp, deSingel, 1999-2000
bOb van Reeth – Architect
In the summer of 2013, in BOZAR Brussels, the retrospective exhibition ‘b0b van Reeth – Architect’ was organized.
bob-van-reeth-architect5.jpg
Boma 1880-1920: Colonial Capital City or Cosmopolitan Trading Post?
The Royal Museum of Central Africa holds an extensive, rich photographic collection. During the exhibition ‘The Memory of Congo: The Colonial Era’ (2005)
Boma 1880-1920 - Thumbnail
Buildings with a social memory: conservation, reuse and reconversion
The centenary of Feestlokaal Vooruit in Ghent provided a perfect occasion to explore possible strategies of conservation, reuse and reconversion of similar, large-scale ‘Maisons du Peuple’, built by and for the people.
Gebouwen met een sociaal geheugen
Circularity and Re-use in Roman Building Culture from Antiquity to the 20th century
Re-used materials in the Severan restoration of the pediment of the Porticus of Octavia, Rome. Its now exposed pediment (invisible in Antiquity) can be seen to consist almost entirely of re-used architectural elements. Photo: Simon J. Barker.
City, Architecture and Colonial Space in Matadi and Lubumbashi, Congo
This research investigates how specific colonial urban spaces in Central Africa developed between 1885 and 1960 not only as the result of top-down planning processes but also via social processes within their ‘cosmopolitan’ communities.
Stad, architectuur en koloniale ruimte3.jpg
Claude Laurens. Architect
In the context of his doctoral research, Johan Lagae conducted research on the personal archives of the French architect Claude Laurens ...
Claude Laurens 01
Collected writings by Geert Bekaert
Since 2007, at the department of architecture & urban planning, the publication of the collected writings (in Dutch) of the Belgian architecture critic Geert Bekaert ...
Verzamelde opstellen van Geert Bekaert
Congo belge (en images)
For this exhibition, Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer and Johan Lagae selected nearly 100 images from the immense visual archive at the Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren ...
Congo belge (en images) - 01
Congo: Urban Landscapes, Intersecting Gazes
This exhibition presented the urban landscapes of three cities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Kisangani)
Congo. Stedelijke landschappen anders bekeken - 01
European Architecture beyond Europe
Between 2010 and 2014, Mercedes Volait (INHA, Paris) and Johan Lagae (UGent) ran a European-funded COST-action project (IS0904) entitled 'European Architecture beyond Europe: Sharing Research and Knowledge on Dissemination Processes, Historical Data and Material Legacy (19th–20th centuries)'.
Europese architectuur buiten Europa
Exhibition 'Open Call. 20 Years of Public Architecture'
Exhibition Orban Space: Luc Deleu – T.O.P. office
The exhibition Orban Space: Luc Deleu – T.O.P. office centres upon Orban Space, the latest research project initiated by T.O.P. office in 2006.
Tentoonstelling Orban Space- Luc Deleu - T.O.P. office - Affiche.jpg
Expolab: Exhibition & Lecture Series
Expolab was a public research programme about exhibiting architecture, from October 2014 to March 2015. It consisted of a public masterclass, a lecture series and an exhibition.
expolab
Glorious Temples or babylonic Whores: The Architecture of Churchbuildings in England According to Consecration Sermons, 1602-1736
Doctoral dissertation Anne-Françoise Morel
Doctoraatsproefschrift Anne-Françoise Morel
Heritage in the Lower Congo Region
As the natural gateway to the immense hinterland of Central Africa, the region of the Lower Congo was of extreme strategic importance for the Belgian colonization project and its economy of exploitation.
Erfgoed in Beneden-Congo - 01
Mapping Kinshasa
Johan Lagae was invited to contribute to the exhibition “Afropolis: Stadt, Medien, Kunst” (curators: Kerstin Pinther, Christian Hanussek, Larissa Förster) with a presentation on the spatial development of Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mapping Kinshasa
Piranesi. The Print Collection of Ghent University
The university library owns an important collection of original etchings by the Italian architect and draughtsman Giambattista Piranesi (1720-1778) …
Affiche.jpeg
Publication of The Baroque in Architectural Culture, 1880-1980
The edited volume The Baroque in Architectural Culture 1880-1980 has appeared with Ashgate; editors are Andrew Leach, Maarten Delbeke and John Macarthur.
Verschijning van The Baroque in Architectural Culture, 1880-1980
The Memory of Congo: The Colonial Era
Drawing on the Royal Museum for Central Africa’s extensive collections, this exhibition presented a broad survey of Congo during colonial times and, as such, shed light on an ignored historical past ...
Het geheugen van Congo. De koloniale tijd.
The monographic factor: theoretical and architectural aspects of single-artist museums
Doctoral dissertation Maarten Liefooghe
De monografische factor
Urban and Architectural Heritage in Kinshasa, DR Congo
A survey of urban and architectural heritage in Kinshasa (DRC) was conducted between 2009 and 2011 at the initiative of Bernard Toulier (French Ministry of Culture and Communication). Johan Lagae was in charge of the historical research.
Stedelijk en bouwkundig erfgoed in Kinshasa, DR Congo