Research Projects Theory and History of Architecture
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. It was founded by Maarten Delbeke, in close collaboration with the officers of the EAHN and the members of the Editorial Board. http://journal.eahn.org
bOb van Reeth – Architect
In the summer of 2013, in BOZAR Brussels, the retrospective exhibition ‘b0b van Reeth – Architect’ was organized.
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)
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.
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.
Claude Laurens. Architect
In the context of his doctoral research, Johan Lagae conducted research on the personal archives of the French architect Claude Laurens.
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 (1928) is an on-going project. Mid-eighties, already the two first volumes were published, edited by Mil De Kooning and Herman Stynen. Between 2008 and 2012 the next 7 volumes were published, edited by Christophe Van Gerrewey and Mil De Kooning.
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, the largest part of which dates from 1885 to 1908.
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) and invited visitors to reflect on the notion of ‘shared heritage’.
Doctoral dissertation Anne-Françoise Morel
Glorious Temples or babylonic Whores: The Architecture of Churchbuildings in England According to Consecration Sermons, 1602-1736
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)'. The focus of this project was not only on colonial architecture but also on the built environment resulting from migration flows or the production linked to transnational networks of expertise.
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. Orban Space brings to full circle the ambition of T.O.P. office to develop a theoretical framework and a practical methodology to think about public space on a global scale, and ultimately to develop suitable strategies to design it.
Expolab: Exhibition & Lecture Series
Expolab was a public research programme about exhibitiong architecture, from October 2014 to March 2015. It consisted of a public masterclass, a lecture series and an exhibition.
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.
Photoalbum Expolab: Exhibition & Lecture Series
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). A research team of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of Ghent University, with Maarten Delbeke, Dirk De Meyer and Bart Verschaffel, has curated a major exhibition of the graphic work of Giambattista Piranesi: Piranesi. The print collection of Ghent University in The Museum of Fine Arts of Ghent (MSK Gent) (09/20/2008-01/18/2009).
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.
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. Beginning with an evocation of Congo’s distant past, which preceded a colonial era that would bring changes to the territory, the history of Congo’s colonization was narrated around a series of major themes: social hierarchies, economic transactions, encounters between individuals and cultures and the construction of a colonial imagery. The exhibition ended with a section devoted to the independence and the post-colonial era.
The Monographic Factor
Museums dedicated to one artist are globally spreading but reflection on monographic museums is limited. In this doctoral research Maarten Liefooghe makes an ideal typical mapping of the factor that makes single-artist museums differ from ‘the art museum’ and defines the institutional stakes in their museum architecture.
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.