RE SEARCH , COLLECTED MAD ArcK

RESEARCH,
COLLECTED
MADArcK
West-European
management
MAGASINnovelties
DE NOUVEAUTÉS
BAZAAR
large windows
cluttered goods
central hall
with glazed roof
GALERIES DU COMMERCE 1838
first elevator used (1869)
Britain
American
BON MARCHÉ 1852
Paris
First phase
hearing
feeling
New York
1858 MACY’S
GREAT ATLANTIC AND
PACIFIC TEA COMPANY (A&P)
New York
1859 1st modern chain store
West-European
galleries around light court
SUPERMARKET
DELHAIZE ‘De Leeuw’
Belgium
1867
New build department store
BON MARCHÉ 1872
Paris (Laplanche)
corner rotundas
American
1st
CHAIN STORE
1840 W.H.SMITH
American
profit: garnish & expanding
1838
1st Department store
architectural and managerial alternate
First retail revolution
luxurious varietyARCADE
of products
West-European
BAZAAR DE L’ INDUSTRIE 1830
GRAND MAGASIN DE NOUVEAUTÉS
Industrial revolution
Seeing
DEPARTMENT STORE
WHITELEY’S 1875
London
extension
1876
(Boileau & Eiffel) Bon Marché
WERTHEIM 1877
Germany
to spend
TIETZ 1879
as possible
Germany
designed
as much time
1ST WOOLWORTHS
‘Nickel & Dime’
1879
HALLS OF TEMPTATION
1880
RE
franchise
VROOM & DREESMANN
architecture prevails
SECOND PHASE
verticality
GROCERY STO
Emile Zola
Au bonheure des dames 1883
1887
the Netherlands
12 Woolworths
1890
Art Nouveau
openness
1892 Bloomingdale’s
1st Escalator
L’INNOVATION
Belgium
1897
Harrods 1898
Germany TIETZ
(Sehring & Lachmann) 1899
Escalator
1899
54 Woolworths
(Stevens & Hunt)
HARRODS
London
L’INNOVATION 1901
Brussels (Victor Horta)
1900
200 A&P’s
CARSON PIRIE SCOTT
1904 Chicago
(Louis Sullivan)
WERTHEIM
Germany 1904
modern materials (Messel)
Steel and plate glass
SELFRIDGES
London 1908
(Buhrnam)
store
Technical innovations
Second retail revolution
1925
1926
WERTHEIM 1927
extension
(Smohl)
1928
1931
grocery shop+
self-service
1917 PIGGLY WIGGLY
Kansas
1st supermarket
1919
1920s PIGGLY WIGGLY
1,081 Woolworths
Kansas
1922 600 supermarkets
(Tietz)
Ehape
Hema
(Bijenkorf)
tasting
(Coco Chanel,
Mary Quant)
Uniprix
(Nouvelle
Galleries)
1928 2,500 supermarkets
1929 16,000 A&P’s
1st discount-supermarket
KING KULLEN
New York
Prisunic
(Au Printemps)
fixed route
smelling
precursor of
boutique chain
1930 adoption of self-service
Focus on interior
designed to reduce time
spent in store
RATIONALISATION
RATIONAL
Second World War
self-service
1939 4,500 supermarkets
1940
UPC symbol and decoder
et
self-service
ark
Loosing pioneers role
dis
co
un
t
su
pe
rm
product expansion to non-food
self-service
self-service
shop-in-shop 1950s
designer’s boutiques
1950s
‘Galleria’
1950s
1951
1953
1954
BIJENKORF
(Marcel Breuer)
Rotterdam
SIMON DE WITT
1st self-service chain
self-service
the Netherlands
ALBERT HEYN
1st chain supermarket
the Netherlands
intro private labels
1957
to stock
20 min/week
superstores
1970
boutique chain
1970s
BENETTON
1970
1973
superstores
UPC globally
social sighting
functional shopping
180 min/week
1985
Focus on interior and architecture of the building
multi-sensory design
hedonistic shopping
320 min/week
Consumerism
Consumerism
LIBERTY’S 1924
Tudor Building
(Hall)
1914
Second retail revolution
Second retail revolution
Managerial influence
THIRD PHASE
social sighting
BIJENKORF 1927
Rotterdam
(Dudok)
4,000 A&P’s
variety
VROOM & DREESMANN 1912
the Netherlands
BIJENKORF 1914
(Straaten jr. exterior) Amsterdam
(Schlöndorf interior)
DO
SAY
MAKE
Adaptation of Sanders’s model
Receiver Transmitter
design team
Environment
Stimuli
Stimuli
(retail environment)
Consumer
Organism
Senses
Interpreted space
atmospheric
Destination
Context of consumption
Source
Retail designer
Response
Behaviour
browsing
functional
Cognition
Organism
mood
Behaviour
(actual/intended)
return
aesthetic
buying
Affect
emotions
Hij landt midden in de burgeroorlog van toen.
Woeste mannen vallen zijn dorp aan.
Hij ziet brullende gezichten, ziet zijn vader en
moeder vallen in een regen van kogels en speren.
RESEARCH,
COLLECTED
MADArcK
113
Rob Cuyvers,
Jan Vanrie &
Bert Willems
THE INAUGURATION
OF A FACULTY
115
The inauguration of a member of the academic community is a rare occurrence,
and academic inaugurations of a complete faculty are even more so. With the
installation of the Faculty of Architecture and Arts (ARK), a sixth faculty has now
been added to Hasselt University (Belgium). This installation is the end result of
a general integration process that was initiated by a political decision—following
the Bologna declaration on the organisation of higher education—to migrate
all academic programmes in Flanders, with the exception of the arts, into universities. The Faculty of Architecture and Arts, then, is the integration of the
Department of Architecture of PHL University College and the research division
within the MAD-Faculty1. Such an integration process inevitably involves many
organisational, administrative, and formal transformations, but here it also led to
a process of intense self-reflection, analysis, and evaluation regarding the proper nature and possible role of art and design disciplines in an academic context.
A focal point in these discussions has been the position of research, and it is
from this perspective that the current publication has been produced. More specifically, the visual essay, the written contributions, and the concise overview of
research projects in this volume have the double goal to introduce and to invite.
Although ARK is now a new element in the academic landscape, its inception has been thoroughly prepared; during recent years a clear research
strategy has been implemented in the two departments, which has resulted in
two young and vibrant but firmly grounded research groups. In this regard, the
current volume can be considered ARK’s inaugural address: a communication
to introduce ourselves and to state our intentions as a research organisation
and member of the academic community. Presenting this inaugural publication,
however, also serves as an invitation. Cooperation, both at the individual and
institutional level, is a key element in our vision of academic research. Indeed,
our aim is to foster regional, national, and international collaborations, not only
to continue our endeavour to build a solid knowledge base, but also to share this
knowledge with our students, research colleagues and partners in the field, and,
in effect, become a locally relevant and internationally interesting informational
hub for the domains of architecture, interior architecture, design, and the arts.
Research in the Faculty of Architecture and Arts
1
The Media, Arts and Design (MAD)
Faculty itself is a collaboration
between the former Department of
Arts at PHL University College and the
former Media and Design Academy of
Limburg Catholic University College
(KHLim). In fact, the departments
of Arts and of Architecture of PHL
University College have had a history
of mergers and divisions since their
establishment in 1970 as autonomous
institutes for higher education, as
the Provinciaal Hoger Instituut voor
Kunstonderwijs (PHIKO) and the
Provinciaal Hoger Instituut voor
Architectuur (PHIA), respectively.
Within the larger academic context and framework of Hasselt University, the
ARK faculty organises bachelors and master’s education courses in architecture
and interior architecture, and fundamental and applied research, and community services in the disciplines of the arts, architecture, and interior architecture.
In its mission statement, the faculty puts forward the ambition to provide its students, teaching staff and researchers with opportunities to develop themselves
to a level of excellence in an international context and with a strong responsibility towards society. The interplays between practice and reflection, between
métier and creativity, and between research and education are at the core of
this ambition, an ambition that is driven by a process that is both contextualised
and goal oriented. Although design and artistic creation remain central, both in
education and research, interdisciplinary connections with the humanities and
engineering are actively sought out.
Focusing on research within the ARK faculty, activities are structured in two
groups: ArcK for research related to architecture and interior architecture and
MAD-Research for research related to the arts. In line with the key concepts
117
N
G
N
SUS
T
PROCESS
PRODUCT
ADAPTIVE
REUSE
PROCESS
PRODUCT
PERFORMANCE
SUS
T
PROCESS
ADAPTIVE
REUSE
PRODUCT
PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE
MORE
R
PERFORMANCE
S
DE
PRODUCT
PROCESS
PRODUCT
I
N
IT Y B UILD
F
PA
C
G
PROCESS
O
R
MORE
PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE
S
DE
•• Sustainability
O
IGNING
F
PRODUCT
PRODUCT
PROCESS
PERFORMANCE
(in design product and process)
Energy consumption of buildings is internationally acknowledged as an increasingly
important aspect of the built environment.
Sustainability in the domain of architecture
is not limited to this factor, however. Many
questions of sustainable design need to be
addressed, especially on the issue of adaptive reuse. In this cluster, we focus on how
sustainability can be incorporated in both
the design process and the product and
how to support designers and architects to
effectively deal with these issues.
PROCESS
SUS
T
PRODUCT
B I L I TY
NA
AI
PERFORMANCE
PROCESS
IT Y B UILD
I
118
119
PRODUCT
PRODUCT
PERFORMANCE
F
CA
PA
C
G
PROCESS
N
Questions relating to aspects of reuse,
transformation, or conservation of historical, abandoned, or underused buildings
or sites—such as those with religious or
industrial heritage—permeate current
society. This cluster, which focuses on
theoretical and designed aspects of
adaptive reuse, is the primary topic of
interest for ArcK and forms the conceptual
backdrop against which most research
within the group is performed.
I
PROCESS PERFORMANCE
PRODUCT
CA
•• Adaptive reuse
IT Y B UILD
B I L I TY
NA
AI
PA
C
B I L I TY
NA
AI
The main topics of ArcK centre around four clusters, all of which involve a
combination of the three factors of Process, Product and Performance, albeit
not all in the same constellation:
PROCESS
•• Designing for More
(user-space interaction)
The main theme in this cluster is how spatial environments are experienced by their
users; how they affect people on a perceptual, cognitive, and emotional level; how
they interact with diverse groups of people;
and how they can increase their well-being.
A prominent topic is universal design/design for all, which encompasses research
on how environments can be designed that
are fitting for diverse groups with different
capacities and capabilities (universal) without being stigmatizing or compromising on
aesthetic quality (design).
I
PERFORMANCE
CA
The distinct nature of architecture and interior architecture implies a spatial synthesis of material, cultural, aesthetic, social, urban, and societal aspects within a
given situation or context. It is our contention that research within these domains
should reflect this complexity. Within ArcK, research on the built environment
inevitably involves dealing with the triad of how designs are generated (Process),
the designs as such (Product), and how designs “function” (Performance). As a
multidisciplinary team (including, for example, designers, urbanists, art historians, engineers, psychologists, and philosophers), we aim to address theoretical
and empirical aspects of relevant research questions in their proper context,
with a wide range of research methods and an emphasis on the possibilities
afforded by designing as a research method. Our research approach originates
from a conceptual framework that is centred on the human aspect, embodied by
both the spatial designer and the user, with particular attention to an inclusive
and sustainable design process and design result. With the generation of knowledge of the designed environment, we strive to be relevant for the individual
designer, for daily design practice, and for society in general. This implies taking
into account the applicability, actual impact, and societal relevance of research,
but, importantly, without the need to restrict research to topics with clear, shortterm economic benefits.
PRODUCT
IGNING
ArcK: Research in architecture and interior architecture.
IT Y B UILD
O
IGNING
•
Designing can be considered a complex
process involving many stakeholders.
Involvement of individual users and future users can be important in the case
of semi-public contexts or on an urban
scale, as well as at the smaller scale of
elements of the interior. Research in this
cluster deals with how to actively include
and engage users, future users, and other
stakeholders in different stages of the design practice.
PA
C
S
DE
•• Capacity building
(collaborative design processes)
CA
of context, interdisciplinarity, responsibility, and relevance, both ArcK and
MAD-Research have delineated some specific target areas that will be
elaborated next.
G
PROCESS
R
MORE
PERFORMANCE
All research within these four clusters, which of course partly overlap, shares
the same ambition: to generate knowledge that is useful for designers in order
to create innovative visions of the future that will ultimately benefit society as a
whole.
•MAD-Research: research in the arts
the need for describing the relevance of artistic research, taking into consideration the aims of these higher art institutes.
The three written contributions in this publication reflect the diversity of topics and the conceptual, paradigmatic, and methodological range of research
that is contained within the faculty. Most of all, however, we hope they expose
the common threads in our research activities and highlight the overall vision of
our faculty, as epitomised by the faculty slogan: Design for Life.
The goal of MAD-Research is to stimulate artistic and design research within
MAD-Faculty. Designers and artists are supported in their research endeavours,
and MAD-Research also aspires to both apply and develop methods and techniques that are proper for art and design. The aim is for research at an academic
level, which implies that it should be meaningful (i.e., contributing to the development of a practice), original (i.e., developing knowledge and skills that are new
for the individual or the practice), and rigorous (i.e., involving a systematic process and frequent presentations to allow relevant others to question the original
knowledge and newly developed skills). As the research is based on the practice
of the artist or designer, it should result in reflective artefacts, and the artistic
process itself should be made explicit and be communicated.
MAD-Research promotes a cross-disciplinary approach and process. As
such, the research is concentrated on two thematic, cross-disciplinary research
domains, thereby also supporting the coupling between research and education
and between fundamental and applied research.
The first cross-disciplinary research domain, Story, Image & Code (SIC),
includes researchers from various graphic design disciplines and the arts. SIC
focuses on typography, visual literacy, image analysis and coding, narrativity,
and book design. In this domain, the long-term goal of MAD-Research is to
achieve international significance in the domain of readability research (typography). On the shorter term, the successful completion of a number of doctoral
projects provides the group with the potential to become a reference in Flanders
on the topics of new forms of image analysis and book design.
In the second cross-disciplinary research domain, Art/Object & Design
(AO & D), fundamental and applied research are performed both on and
through the realisation of objects (products, sculptures, installations, interior
objects, jewellery, etc.) within the contexts of the fine arts, fine crafts, and design, and preferably a combination of these three. A strong focus is on the actual
materialising of these objects and the role of this materialisation in the creative
process.
Framework for the essays
Having described the general outline of research within ARK, the following three
contributions will address in more detail a number of facets we deem of particular value at this time. The first paper, ‘Cheap Tricks and Radical Change’, illustrates how the theme of sustainability can be tackled from two perspectives that
differ in approach and vocabulary but essentially share the same concerns and
intrinsic goals. The second contribution, ‘Drawing Inner Lines: Human experience and architectural Research’, is an essay describing some of the philosophical underpinnings of our research approach from the perspective of the humanities. Finally, ‘Substantive, Strategic, and Societal Arguments for Research in the
Arts’ argues for a pivotal role of artistic research within higher art institutes and
120
121
ESSAYS
Oswald Devisch &
Griet Verbeeck
CHEAP TRICKS AND
RADICAL CHANGE
Two perspectives on
the sustainability debate
125
Jasmien Herssens,
Kris Pint &
Koenraad Van Cleempoel
DRAWING INNER LINES
Human experience and
architectural research
137
David Huycke,
Marjan Sterckx &
Bert Willems
SUBSTANTIVE,
STRATEGIC AND SOCIETAL
ARGUMENTS FOR RESEARCH
IN THE ARTS
147
Oswald Devisch &
Griet Verbeeck
CHEAP TRICKS AND
RADICAL CHANGE
Two perspectives on
the sustainability debate
125
The following text can be read as a tale of two disciplines—sustainable construction and urban design—both searching for novel ways to approach the
complex issue of sustainability. It can also be read as the testimony of two researchers struggling with the ivory tower of academia. But most of all, it should
be read as a shared fascination with the way in which people inhabit and alter
space.
1 An inevitable transition?
Sustainability is hype. Sustainability is a buzz word. These statements are pronounced by both individuals and building professionals. They show how for
some, sustainability is still unknown and unloved, despite the ubiquity of the
term. Although there is a growing group of citizens engaging with much enthusiasm in sustainability-related initiatives—such as cohousing projects, local food
teams, and car sharing—there still remains a large group of those who perceive
the growing attention for sustainability in recent years as an imperative demand
from an environmental movement with which they have few affinities. Or they remain indifferent to it and pass over the information and the call for participation,
as these are far from their own individual problems. Often, however, they do not
realise that this public attention is not so much an effect of political lobbying, but
results from an ‘underground’ process of many years in which the problems and
challenges of cohabitation of more than 7 billion people on our finite planet have
been studied and discussed.
Since the early 1970s, there has been a growing understanding that the postwar belief in progress (‘the sky is the limit’) and the related unrestrained mass
consumption will lead to unbearable situations in the near future. The Club of
Rome publication The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al., 1972) and the 1972 UN
Conference on the Human Environment were among the first expressions of this
concern. Despite the noticeable oil crises in the 1970s and regular reporting on
climate change since the 1990s (by the International Panel on Climate Change
and others), many of the discussions mainly have taken place among scientists.
Many ideas for solutions also took shape among scientists at first. This is slowly
changing, and a growing group of conscious citizens is taking action. However,
to implement solutions in daily practice, everyone should collaborate. But for
those who are not aware of this intensive thinking process and the upcoming
initiatives of the last decades, the current focus on sustainability appears the
umpteenth hype that soon will pass for a new one.
In reality the attention for sustainability is more like a plant that has been
growing and rooted in the underground for years and is now showing sprouts everywhere on the surface. This plant can be ignored, but it will keep growing. So
it is better to learn now how to train and prune it in order to get not a strangling,
overgrowing plant, but one that with its fertility and beauty helps to keep our
world liveable. This is not simple and straightforward, as sustainability is a dynamic process for which we are still in the learning phase. Because of the huge
complexity and global scale of the sustainability challenge, our understanding
will always be incomplete. And despite our growing insight on its causes and our
never-ending search for solutions, we will never be able to anticipate all possible
secondary effects of these solutions. We might have to take a step back and
start over, as the outcome of our efforts is and will remain uncertain. Awareness
127
of the nature and the consequences of this intrinsic uncertainty is important for scientists
who want to contribute to the establishment of a sustainable environment, as this uncertainty determines the boundary conditions for research.
Altering our way of living
The challenges of the sustainability problem require a drastic change in our way
of living. It is understandable that many
people feel resistance to this change.
As Nobel prize winner Kahneman et al.
(2000) proved in Choices, Values and
Frames, people are by nature unresponsive when they are asked to exchange a
loss of high certainty (abandoning familiar
living and working habits) for a gain with
high uncertainty (realising a liveable but
unknown future). Is the problem really as
big and urgent as it is presented? Will it
not be resolved spontaneously, without all
these drastic changes? Who will guarantee
that the proposed solutions will lead to the
intended results? Will individual choices
really affect this global problem?
Despite these questions, most people
do not deny the challenges we are currently
facing. As it appears from several sociological surveys, environmental consciousness
has become significantly high. Nevertheless, there are few who fully grasp the
magnitude of the environmental challenge.
Further, continuous public attention sometimes has the contradictory effect that the
interest of individuals is diminished rather
than increased, as some are annoyed by
recurrent messages from sensitisation
campaigns and increasingly stringent legal
requirements. Moreover, environmental
consciousness and sense of urgency alone
do not procure effective changes. More
trivial grounds are still too often given as
a motive for not taking action, such as not
having it as a priority, it causing too much
fuss, not having time, and never thinking of
it. One reason for this may be that our West
European life is still too comfortable, and
most of us have been barely confronted
with the negative effects of our lifestyle up
to now.
Altering orgware
In spite of the complexity of sustainability
issues and their inherent uncertainty, there
are initial signs that the building market is
slowly but irrevocably changing direction.
Houses in Flanders are getting smaller
and more energy efficient, collective forms
of housing are on the rise, solar energy is
being widely adopted, etc. The question is
how to speed up this change.
This brings us to the field of transition
thinking, which argues that transitions (or
radical changes) are the result of interactions among three levels: landscape,
regime, and niche (Rip & Kemp, 1998). The
landscape, or macro level, is the overall societal setting in which processes of change
occur, such as demographic trends,
climate changes, and financial-economic
crises. The regime, or meso level, refers
to the dominant culture and practice of
the system under study, characterised by
particular actor-networks, power relations,
regulations, technologies, etc. The niche,
or micro level, is the level inside which
novelties are created, tested, and diffused.
Such novelties can be new technologies,
new rules and legislation, new organisations, or new projects, concepts, or ideas.
The point is that changes within the landscape could generate tensions within the
regime, opening so-called windows of opportunity, in turn changing the regime. Or
niches could develop and gain momentum,
further accelerating the ongoing changes
within the regime (Geels & Schot, 2007).
Governments have been trying to
manage transitions by proclaiming new
regulations, promoting new technologies,
and introducing new players and structures; in short, by manipulating the orgware
of both the regimes and niches. These
attempts have an impact, be it mainly in the
formulation of visions, the setting of polit-
128
Yet in 2012 there were more than 32 million
refugees worldwide due to disasters
caused by climate change. Therefore,
the ongoing alteration should speed up
significantly, and present hurdles should be
addressed without delay, not only by those
who are environmentally conscious, but by
everyone.
ical agendas, the creation of networks, or
the initiation of projects (Block & Paredis,
2012). However, the building market is so
much rooted in old traditions, networks that
grew over generations, persistent preferences, local techniques, etc., that it would
be an overestimation to claim that all the
management initiatives truly accelerated
the transition towards a more sustainable
development model. What is more, these
visions and political agendas are so far
removed from reality that the danger exists
that they will be adopted as promotalk
to refresh (conservative) ways of acting,
rather than as tools to implement structural
change (Block & Paredis, 2012).
2 A technicalist approach
In the past, thinking processes and discussions on issues of sustainability mostly took place among experts at conferences, workshops, labs, etc. This resulted
in a multitude of innovative, often theoretical, technological ideas and solutions
that had large improvement potential, but also, if implemented, would have a
large impact on our daily life. Think of smart grids, renewable energy, and local
food production. Furthermore, the participation of experts in the thinking process give them an intellectual lead, so that the proposed solutions appear more
plausible and feasible to them than to those confronted with these solutions out
of the blue.
In addition to this, the nature of scientific research is to isolate a specific
aspect of a problem for in-depth analysis and to search for specific solutions
based on this analysis. However, as the Dutch urban planner and developer of
the Ecopolis model, Sybrand Tjallingii (2013), once said: “Every expert tends to
take a problem to his own nook of expertise, whereas solving a problem is about
considering relations and integration”. A global solution for a complex problem,
which the sustainability challenge is, cannot be achieved by combining all partial
solutions. Synergies and contradictions will only appear if different aspects of a
problem are faced simultaneously.
Ecologists & engineers
The search for sustainable solutions for
buildings has been the interest of ecologists and engineers. Ecologists often
put the conservation of nature first and
perceive the built environment as a threat
to nature, whereas for many individuals and certainly for architects, the built
environment has a great many intrinsic
qualities. While ecological houses made
Climate neutral provinces &
offshore wind farms
An emblematic proponent of the call for
synergies is the cradle-to-cradle (C2C)
principle. In short, this principle introduces
the concept of ‘lifecycle development’,
proposing to no longer throw objects away
when they are no longer useful, but to
reuse them as either ‘biological nutrients’
or ‘technical nutrients’. Biological nutrients
129
of wood or straw and lime and earthships
(Reynolds, n.d.) may be the ideal images of
a better future for some, others see these
scenarios as doom for architecture. On this
end of the sustainable building spectrum,
a sustainable house is considered by both
ecologists and architects to be a tradeoff
between ecology and architecture, in which
choosing for one inherently is done at the
expense of the other. At the other end of
the spectrum are engineers presenting a
highly technological sustainable house
full of smart solutions. They often forget
that not everyone has the same familiarity
with and trust in technology, with the risk
that a house is created that is a high-tech
machine for which the occupants do not
understand the manual. The movie Mon
Oncle, directed by Jacques Tati, presented
already in 1958 a superior and visionary
example of what life can be like for differing
characters in such a house. Both the ‘backto-nature’ house and the high-tech ‘living
machine’ are (extreme) manifestations of
different visions of sustainable living that
may alienate most people from their daily
environment and therefore will not result in
a sustainable alteration of lifestyle. There
are many examples of more moderate
attempts to create sustainable buildings,
but this moderation too often is a way to
ease one’s environmental conscience, with
a risk of mediocre sustainability.
Moreover, in most attempts, the focus
is mainly on the ecological pillar of the
Triple P, with only little attention to social
and cultural values of architecture. The
ecological challenges we are facing are
huge; therefore, the ecological focus in any
sustainable building concept is of extreme
importance, but it should not be the only
one. Nevertheless, a strong focus on social
and cultural values of architecture should
not be a pretext for ignoring the ecological
impact of buildings. Nowadays people
often limit their focus on sustainability to
only one of the pillars, depending on their
interest and affinity with the problem. However, the ambition to integrate the Triple Ps
in a holistic way should be maintained.
are materials that can re-enter the environment. Technical nutrients are materials that
remain within closed-loop industrial cycles
(Braungart & McDonough, 2002).
The C2C principle entails a whole new
way of looking not only at materials but
also at the process of building and the role
of spatial planning. It is basically a plea for
thinking in cycles, for thinking local, and for
thinking holistic. This would indeed imply a
total turnabout of the now-dominant building regimes. For these regimes are rooted
not only in traditions, as argued earlier, but
also in ambitions. Each sector, for instance,
formulates its own vision and follows its
own agenda. The same is true for each
policy level (national, regional, province,
and municipality). This results in a plethora of regulations, manuals, instruments,
advisory boards, subsidy systems, domain
experts, etc., all approaching the same
issues from different perspectives, discouraging citizens, organisations and institutes
from even aspiring to a holistic approach.
Furthermore, the competition between all
these sectorial and political ambitions turns
the sustainability debate into an endless
attempt to outbid one another by proposing
ever more utopian projects. Think for instance of the ambition of cities, provinces,
and Europe (!) to become climate neutral
by 2050, 2030, or even as soon as 2020.
At the same time this debate is growing
ever more technical and juridical in order to
protect acquired rights.
This prevents niches from blossoming.
Those pioneers who dare to experiment do
this in spite of all the transition managing,
but, due to the fragmentation and juridification, they hardly ever get the chance
to gain momentum and mature into new
traditions, supplanting the rooted ones. All
this occurs in spite of the awareness of the
urgency of the sustainability issue.
3 Building and sustaining capacities
A technicalist approach is necessary to initiate change. It introduces new standards, raises ambitions, tries out novel technologies, etc. The question, however,
is how durable this approach is, given its paternalistic way of implementing
change. For this reason, organisations and institutions are also experimenting
with a more incremental and open approach of (re)directing the way we live and
alter space, an approach that tweaks and twists existing structures, roles, and
relations instead of imposing new ones. This approach relies on capacity building. Capacity can be defined as the ability to carry out a set of stated objectives.
Capacity building then refers to the process of improving the ability of a person,
group, organisation, or institute to meet these objectives (Brown et al., 2001).
The point of departure is that such a process requires external assistance or incentives, not to direct the process towards an end result (as is the case with the
technicalist approach), but rather to initiate, feed, and/or accelerate it. Capacity
building can be considered durable when the acquired abilities do not disappear
the moment the external input dries up. As such, the challenge ‘is not so much
to build the capacity of individuals and institutions, but to build the capacity to
use capacity’ (Peltenburg et al., 2000, p. 371).
There exist different strands of capacity building; for instance, there are
those related to development aid that mainly involve the provision of basic
services such as healthcare, those related to supporting rising democracies
that mainly involve the building of a (local) political apparatus, or those related
to shrinking regions that are mainly directed at helping communities to become
economically self-reliant. All these strands touch upon sustainability issues, but
none consider these as their main focus. In order to initiate capacity-building
projects specifically to support the transition towards a more sustainable mode
of living, then the listed strands may help to define a number of conditions that
these projects should take into consideration. A first condition is the necessity of
working with a long timeframe because of the simple fact that improving abilities
takes time. This is not to say that capacity-building processes should linger on
forever, since communities can grow dependent on external input. A second
condition is related to the form of pedagogy that is employed to improve abilities.
Biesta (2012) distinguishes three such forms: The first is based on instruction
with an educator telling others how to act and how to be; the second is based
on reflection with the educator in the role of a facilitator of learning; and the third
is based on collective action in which there are no educators, but only people
enacting a common concern. Capacity-building projects—addressing issues of
sustainability—will have a bigger chance to be durable when multiple forms of
pedagogy are present. A third condition is related to the type of actors that are
involved in capacity-building projects. Crisp et al. (2000) distinguish three types
of actors—individuals, organisations, and institutions—and argues that durable
capacity building requires addressing at least two of these types.
Empathic design
Quite some capacity-building projects
directed towards individuals have been set
up. Sensitisation campaigns with flyers,
brochures, and TV spots tell building
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Collective efficacy
There exist a number of initiatives to help
organisations and institutes overcome
both the technicality of the sustainability
discourse, the conservativeness of the
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owners how to reduce energy consumption
and improve their houses. Workshops and
seminars inform architects and contractors
how to design and build sustainable buildings. But most of these initiatives are very
prescriptive and solely use the first form
of pedagogy: instruction by telling others
how to act and what to do. Like at school,
this approach works for some, whereas for
others this is not sufficient to join in.
As Heiskanen et al. (2013) wrote, ‘many
argue that rather than disseminating the
energy experts’ worldviews to energy
users, energy experts should try to understand how users (…) frame energy use
in the home or at the workplace’ (p. 242).
This can be expanded to many aspects of
sustainability, but it involves an intensified
interaction between experts and ‘users’, be
they laymen or professionals.
The concept of empathic design
may help to overcome this paternalistic
approach. Empathy can be defined as
‘the ability to identify with and understand
another’s situation, feelings and motives’
(Preece, 1999, p. 65), and by extension,
empathic design can be defined as design
that takes into account these feelings and
motives in the design of objects, instruments, or processes.
Applied to the subject of sustainable
building, this would imply that initiatives to
build knowledge and to support decision
making on sustainable building projects
should start from the way of living and
working of homeowners and architects in a
generous way.
Empathic design should lead to
dwelling types that are sustainable both
on paper and in practice, triggering people
to adjust their way of living sustainably
without losing comfort. It should also lead
to design support tools for architects that
respect their designerly way of thinking and
working.
building practice, and the plethora of regulations, subsidy systems, advisory boards,
etc. Think for instance of the numerous
transition arenas, pilot projects, training
courses, and demonstration projects.
Rather than prescribing what an institute
or organisation should do (as is the case
with the technicalist approach), these
initiatives stimulate knowledge exchange,
trigger cross-sectorial and cross-scalar
collaboration, and develop competences
via teaching and training. Their objective is
to improve the abilities of involved actors
to take (collective) initiatives, or to professionalise existing initiatives to the point that
they start having an impact on the overall
regime.
Measuring against the listed conditions
for durable capacity building, it can be
argued that these initiatives mainly focus
on the short term, adopt an instructive
form of pedagogy, and primarily address
organisations. In other words, not only is
the sustainability discourse dominated by
technicalists, but even capacity-building
initiatives tend to suffer from a technicalist
focus.
The concept of collective efficacy may
help to overcome this technicalist supremacy. Collective efficacy is a measure of
the social cohesion among inhabitants of
a neighbourhood combined with the willingness of these neighbours to intervene
on behalf of the common good (Sampson
et al., 1997). It is mainly used within the
context of neighbourhoods suffering from
acts of crime and vandalism. The question
is whether it can also support our search
for durable capacity-building projects
addressing issues of sustainability. In other
words, it considers whether individual
citizens can be triggered to collaborate and
play a role in their own energy production,
waste management, water treatment, food
production, transport provisions, etc., as
such accelerating the transition process.
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4 Embracing the multitude
The challenge is how to initiate a culture of capacity building—tackling sustainability issues—that focuses on the long term, integrates the three forms of
pedagogy, and addresses institutions, organisations, and individual citizens (be
they laymen or experts). A single technicalist approach to large and complicated projects, such as climate neutral provinces and cradle-to-cradle production
cycles, will not suffice. On the contrary, it is our conviction that durable capacity-building projects require a multitude of simple strategies and instruments,
so intuitive in use that they can easily be adopted in the routines of everyday life
and of such diversity that they can seduce a variety of people, in a variety of situations throughout their whole lifespan. Latour (2005) refers to these strategies
and instruments as prostheses: aids for people who lack the capacity to take
part in the political frontlines. Biesta (2012) in turn speaks of interruptions: simple
interventions, such as events, objects, or experiences, that can help to put the
spotlight on issues that cause people to struggle. We call them cheap tricks for
radical change.
Empathic research
One of the criteria for empathic design and
empathic products is that it should connect
with the feelings and motives of the people
it is aimed for. This requires the designers
to take into account the perspective of the
users.
The objective of our research is to
develop empathic research by incorporating empathic processes within the
research process. In short, the objective is
to create a multitude of decision-support
tools directed at individuals, architects, and
policy makers and particularly developed
with the needs and motives of the decision
maker as the starting point. The following
selection of research projects gives a start
to this multitude: (1) an energy design tool
(developed by Lieve Weytjens). The focus
is to inform architects in real time about the
energy and comfort performance of their
design from the early design stages on
and in a design environment (a new project
is about to start focusing on sustainable
material use); (2) development of robust
low-energy housing concepts (developed
within the TETRA BEP2020 project). The
focus is to inform architects, individuals
and contractors, each according to their
interest, on how to conceive low-energy
and energy-neutral dwellings that are most
Collective spatial efficacy
One of the criteria for collective efficacy is
the willingness of people to collaborate for
the common good. This not only requires
that people possess the ability to carry
out a set of stated objectives, but also that
they trust one another, that they feel like
cooperating, and that they believe that their
collective effort will have an impact.
The objective of our research is to focus
on the role that space can play in nurturing these features. In short, the objective
is to develop a multitude of cheap tricks
to support collective spatial efficacy. The
following selected research projects are
the first steps towards the building of such
a multitude: (1) a location-based serious
game (developed by Simona Sofronie) to
support participatory processes. The focus
is to motivate participation and understand spatial tactics; (2) a hybrid forum
(developed by Sarah Martens) to debate
over (regional) spatial issues. The focus is
on long-term engagement and collective
action; (3) an interactive narrative (developed by Daniel Veestraeten) to explore the
impact of ribbon development. The focus
is on data visualisation and triggering
reflection; (4) a design game (developed by
Jessica Schoffelen) to stimulate documentation of co-creation processes. The focus
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economically viable, least sensitive to
occupants’ behaviour (thus robust), and
well performing on both energy and indoor
comfort; (3) My Heat Comfort (developed
within the Lambrechts SME Innovation
project). The focus is to inform individuals
how to choose the most appropriate heating and ventilation system, depending on
their financial and environmental interests;
(4) the analysis of the database of Flemish
energy performance certificates (within
the Policy Research Centre Housing ). The
focus is to provide insight at the Flemish
policy level, local governmental level, and
individual level on the energy performance
of dwellings (stock) through benchmarking.
is on open knowledge and thick documenting; (5) a scenario method (developed
by Oswald Devisch) to explore realistic
utopias. The focus is on co-production and
research by design.
We began our argument by stating that the establishment of a sustainable
environment is a complex process for which the outcomes are uncertain. The
technicalist approach tries to bypass this uncertainty by asking people to carefully perform a set of scripts in order to reach a set of predefined objectives. The
multitude approach, on the other hand, stimulates people to improvise with the
objectives being continuously recalibrated as the process develops. Steering
transitions in a sustainable direction then shifts from being a privilege of experts,
to a collective effort during which any actor—whether an expert in sustainable construction or urban design or simply a field expert—can take the lead,
choosing either to play along or to introduce a new tune. Since there is no script,
players have to decide in real time which strategy to use. The multitude then
serves as a reservoir of instruments and best practices that players can fall back
upon to back up their line of action; in other words, as a reservoir of cheap tricks
to initiate radical change.
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Jasmien Herssens,
Kris Pint &
Koenraad Van Cleempoel
DRAWING INNER LINES
Human experience and
architectural research
137
The Interior of Space
‘What matters is not space, but the interior of space—and the inner horizon of
the interior’ (van Eyck cited in Smithson, 1968, p. 41). This cryptic statement by
Aldo van Eyck illustrates his rejection of a rigid functionalism in architecture that
only focuses on technical, rational, and mechanical aspects of the built environment. We could say that this ‘inner horizon,’ as van Eyck calls it, is created by
the experiences of the inhabitant, the user of a space. It refers to all of the aspects of a human dwelling that remain invisible and untraced in the abstraction
of a plan or programme but that occupy an essential part of the human experience of architecture.
Thus, to understand how architecture works, one has to take this human experience as a starting point. And to understand human experience, architectural
research must draw a series of exploring lines that wander—sometimes by mistake—into the different domains of the humanities: cultural studies, history, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and—not to be forgotten—the arts. All those
lines travel toward this ‘inner horizon’ as they try to understand what it means
and how it feels for someone to simply be at some specific ‘interior of space’.
We consider all the spaces that involve physical interventions in the form
of architecture to be interior spaces. The physical creation of an interior space
includes more than interior design. The architectural interventions that create a
sense of ‘interior space’ may take place on different scale levels, from private to
public, from the house to the city. These interior spaces are defined in an ongoing dialogue with their users. This is how spaces become places, as Tuan (1977),
Norberg-Schultz (1980), and Augé (1995) define them: significant locations that
are created through the meaning given by human experiences. As such, much
of our research takes as a starting point the existential phenomenology in the
philosophical tradition of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Bachelard, and,
more recently, Pallasmaa. What is at stake in this kind of philosophy, is succinctly summarised in Nietzsche’s (1883/1969) appeal in Thus Spoke Zarathustra to
‘remain true to the Earth’ (p. 42). It is a warning to any researcher not to lose
connection with the muddy nature of reality and of life itself, and not to get lost
in the sterile, virtual space of computer renderings, theoretical schemes, or academic theories. Architectural research has to deal with the actual presence of
real bodies, interacting with buildings and with each other. Our research focuses
on these ‘lived spaces’, the everyday spaces that are constructed by human
experience. Yet this return to phenomenology is not naïve: the ‘Earth’ of which
Nietzsche speaks has nothing to do with any nostalgic or reactionary claim to
‘rootedness’, or with some ‘authentic’ mode of dwelling that can serve as an
antidote to both technocratic nightmares and posthuman, cyborg fantasies. We
know very well that we cannot escape Koolhaas’ generic city, Virillio’s omnipolis,
Lyotard’s megalopolis, or whatever you want to label this urban network we can
call, with an allusion to Walter Benjamin, the uncanny capital of the 21st century.
We acknowledge the discursive structure of every human dwelling and experience, shaped by ideology, gender, economics, and politics and by the interaction with an innumerable and inextricable series of different objects, systems,
and networks. And yet, this does not mean that we can escape from this ‘inner
horizon’ of our dwelling, from the immanence of a human body that feels, suf-
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fers, enjoys, and desires, or as Roland Barthes (1989) calls it, from this ‘intimate
which seeks utterance, seeks to make its cry heard, confronting generality, confronting science’ (p. 284, italics in original).
In order to be able to take this intimacy of the human body into account and
to allow it to express itself in an academic context, we need a specific kind of research setting—heteropia—that allows us to integrate this ‘inner horizon’ in our
approach to design issues. It also requires a specific key value—generosity—
that underlies both our research themes and our research methods. And finally,
we need a focus on each of the elements that together give meaning to interior
spaces: experience, signification, and imagination.
Heterotopia
Together, the different lines of our research demarcate a setting that always
maintains a very close relationship with society, while nonetheless keeping a
critical distance from its technocratic demands. At best, such a setting is able to
function as what Foucault (1967) in his ‘Different Spaces’ called a ‘heterotopia’.
Unlike a utopia, a heterotopia is a place that actually exists, but like a utopia,
a heterotopia offers an alternative set of values and priorities, with different
rules and codes of conduct. Heterotopias are places where a given society emblematically situates its problems, its deviations, and its crises. Some theorists
even describe it as a space of mediation (De Cauter & Dehaene, 2008, p. 94).
We believe that the space of architectural education and scholarly research
needs to remain such an ‘other space’. As a heterotopia, it should guarantee the
freedom of time, space, and speech so that alternative ways of thinking about
interiors, buildings, and cities can be explored. This demands not only a spatial
but sometimes also a temporal distance from the misconceptions of the day by
fully affirming, in the Nietzschean sense of the word, the ‘untimely’. Nietzsche
(1874/1983) uses this adjective in his On the Uses and the Disadvantages of History for Life to describe the task of cultural historiography, and more precisely
classical philology, as ‘acting counter to our time and thereby acting on our time,
let us hope, for the benefit of a time to come’ (p. 60). Nietzsche advocates a
form of research that introduces outmoded ways of thinking into a new context
in order to escape the tyranny of the fashionable. Yet far from being nostalgic or
conservative, these ‘untimely’ concepts are used to forge new possibilities for
the future.
With regard to architectural research, Pérez-Gomez (1999) reformulates
Nietzsche’s view on history as a need for ‘visiting and interpreting the traces and
documents of our past, invariably with fresh eyes, to discover hitherto hidden
potentialities for the future, as one recovers coral from the bottom of the ocean
or extracts pearls out of ordinary-looking molluscs’ (p. 340). The metaphor of
the pearl splendidly illustrates how the untimely works: an object is taken from
its original context—the soft, secluded interior of the mollusc—and inserted into
a totally different context: a necklace, for instance. We could say that however
different the context, the pearl is in both cases the answer to a specific problem;
the pearl is the mollusc’s answer to the problem of an invading and possibly
harmful particle, while the pearl in the necklace deals with the more aesthetical
problem of the relationship between an ellipse and a naked neck, between the
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colour of someone’s skin and pearl white. Something similar happens when we
reuse an outmoded text or image of a building that once formulated an answer
to a specific problem in an historical epoch but that now helps us to address the
different problems of the present. The past for Nietzsche is thus not something
to be nostalgically venerated but a creative force that can be used to design the
future.
Generosity
Thinking about the architectural design of the future implies that we take into
account the global problems and challenges that have emerged in the first decade of this century. We are beginning to understand that the dominant ideology,
which focuses solely on an increase in efficiency and economic growth, has
reached its limits. It seems inevitable that a set of alternative values has to be
developed to keep our future economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable. We believe that architecture has an important role to play in this respect.
One key value that architectural research should strongly affirm is the notion
of ‘generosity’. Generosity is a wonderful but underestimated concept in architecture, and we advocate its inclusion in the grammar of research by design.
Generosity aims at the well-being of the user and searches for what Bachelard
(1964) called ‘felicitous space’. Of course, this felicity is not only found in domestic cosiness, the sensuality of a piece of furniture, the physical and emotional
shelter of a home, the pleasures of beauty, or a carefully designed dialogue between form and function. Happiness can also be found in tracing a radical line of
flight or denouncing a false ideology of harmonious dwelling that obscures conflicts and tensions. It is the happiness of quiet rebellion and private resistance
that Certeau (2011) appreciated in our everyday practices. It is the happiness of
every wayward use of a building and the erotic pleasure of transgression that
Tschumi (1994) advocated in his famous advertisements for architecture.
Good architecture is generous and takes care of many different users without stigmatizing them, generating a feeling of well-being for all. Good design
research tries to be the bridge that links ‘design’ with ‘life’. ‘Designing for Life’
is a design attitude that encourages designers to think and create beyond the
general, classical rules of design. This way we sympathise with, for example,
the interpretation of Peter Zumthor’s senior housing in Masans near Chur (Switzerland). This site provides an alternative to the usually uninspired interiors of
such developments, which show very little empathy with their inhabitants, even if
these strictly regulated buildings are the result of scientific research in the areas
of ergonomics and social gerontology. Zumthor’s design embodies what generosity could mean for its inhabitants, who are no longer treated as objects with
average measurements and limited movement capacities, but rather as true participants of an experience of quality, happiness, and domesticity that expresses
itself in materials and innovative interior design solutions.
The key value of generosity can already be found in different design concepts such as affordance, inclusive design, design for all or universal design,
participation, and adaptive reuse. Affordance refers to the way in which architectural design allows us to perform actions in a specific place. Universal design
strategies show generosity in their aim to stretch this affordance for different
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actions to as many different kinds of users as possible. Generosity is also an
important element in the theme of participation; research in this field tries to
further develop ways in which architectural solutions are the result of thorough
involvement of the intended users.
Finally, perhaps less obviously, generosity is also an important aspect of the
reuse of older buildings. Often architects will not know who will be sheltered and
protected in their buildings, yet their work provides a kind of hospitality that can
last for different generations, a typological and constructive ‘openness’ that allows for unexpected adaptations and that welcomes new programmes and new
users.
Generosity is also a crucial factor in our research methodologies. We believe
the quality of architectural research benefits from a crossover of different lines
of thought and different kinds of knowledge. This means being inclusive rather
than exclusive (which does not mean being uncritical), allowing for as many parameters as necessary. The answer to research questions can be found through
different approaches, including meticulously conducted empirical research, philosophical, anthropological and historical reflection, drawing and sketching, artistic experiment, and design research. Yet in all these different methodological
approaches, we can distinguish three fundamental aspects of human interaction
with the space: experience, signification, and imagination. Research and design
are intrinsically embedded in the perceptual process of the creator. If designers
have better insight into the way people perceive, they can design appropriate
environments (Böhme, 1991; O’Neill, 2001; Herssens, 2011).
Experience
As Pallasmaa (1996/2005) stated in The Eyes of the Skin—Architecture and the
Senses, the architectural experience is too often reduced to the visual impact
of a building. He argued that the sensual experience of a specific environment
also involves other senses, as well as our ‘memories, imagination, and dreams’
(p. 19). The experience of architecture is a perceptual process, in which the
qualities of space, matter and scale are assessed through a combination of
multiple senses (Rasmussen, 1964/2001; Bloomer & Moore, 1977; Pallasmaa,
1996/2005). The real challenge, of course, is how to register and represent
these sensuous, often intangible qualities of our built environment and how to
integrate them in the design process. This focus on experience also implies an
awareness that architecture is not only more than the two-dimensionality of a
picture, but also more that the three-dimensionality of space; architecture has
essentially four dimensions, as the factor of time—on different time scales—is
part and parcel of the architectural experience, which is a dynamic process, a
‘journey’ rather than a static snapshot.
Signification
The experience of a place cannot be separated from its meaning. Space is not
only perceived, but also ‘read’ like a text. Every site tells us a series of stories,
from practical, pragmatic micro-narratives that help us find our way, to the larger
historical and cultural context that allows us to make sense of a specific building.
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This context is more than just a kind of superficial branding to seduce tourists
and consumers to visit specific places or to raise the economic value of houses
or regions. The spontaneous circulation of these stories, whether very recent or
centuries old, is necessary to relate to a place, to feel at home. Or as de Certeau
(2002) puts it: ‘where stories are disappearing (or else are being reduced to
museographical objects), there is a loss of space’ (p. 80). This is also important
when it comes to the historical signification of places. Buildings, to use the term
of Machado (1976), are ‘palimpsests’, and each intervention should take into
account the memory of the building: ‘the past becomes a “package of sense”,
of built-up meaning to be accepted (maintained), transformed, or suppressed
(refused)’ (p. 49). Scott (2008) suggests that this memory or meaning may be
unconscious and unintended—as in the continuing transformation of Le Corbusiers’ social housing in Pessac by its occupants—but he continues, ‘the vernacular can never make a mistake’ (p. 40).
Both the hermeneutic tradition and (post)structuralist semiotics offer useful
frameworks to examine the different layers of meaning that places can generate
and how discursive strategies are used in architecture. As architecture is basically also a sequential art, literary, cinematographic, and game theories provide
us with a useful toolbox of concepts that can be used for the analysis and creation of public and private spaces.
Imagination
A final important but neglected factor in research in the humanities is imagination. In the context of ‘research by design’, one has tried to objectivise and
systematise the design process. However, in order to come to results generous
towards human emotion and experience, one has to recognise imagination as
an important and essential aspect of the design process. Too often regarded as
subjective, fanciful, and unscientific, imagination is an indispensable instrument
in the understanding of human space and thus a key element of architectural
research. This is made very clear by Zumthor (1998) in his Thinking Architecture:
When I concentrate on a specific site or place for which I am going to design
a building, when I try to plumb its depths, its form, its history, and its sensuous
qualities, images of other places start to invade this process of precise observation: images of places that I know and that once impressed me, images of
ordinary or special places that I carry with me as inner visions of specific moods
and qualities; images of architectural situations, which emanate from the world
of art, of films, theater or literature. (p. 41)
The creation of poetic imagery can prove to be a powerful strategy against
what Debord (1995) called ‘the society of the spectacle’; against the impact of
mass media in architecture and interior design, which has fundamentally turned
us into passive consumers of images that show us how to live (Colomina, 1996;
Rice, 2007; Sparke, 2008).
We want to further develop the analysis and creation of such poetic images
as research tools, again inspired by Zumthor (2006): “Associative, wild, free, ordered, and systematic thinking in images, in architectural, spatial, colourful, and
sensuous pictures—this is my favourite definition of design” (p. 67-69). Artistic
research can be an epistemological tool for exploring spatiality and interiority,
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not only by analysing existing art works but also by the creation of new works of
art that further explore the problems and possibilities of contemporary environments. Imagination gives us more intuitive and more emotional but also more
far-reaching access to what lies at the ‘inner horizon’ of dwelling, as well as what
lies beyond.
Afterthought: Arabesque
We started this text with the need for architectural research to trace wandering
lines into design research and the humanities. These research lines always and
inevitably cross borders; they lead one beyond the safe boundaries of any expertise, any specific specialism. These lines do not care for the neat fences that
divide the different disciplines; they must enter uncharted lands, not like a conqueror but like a smuggler, a trader on the black market, following secret paths
that connect different fields of knowledge. In this way, research in the humanities
and the arts interweaves with design theory and design research. The history of
architecture and architectural design itself offers us a beautiful poetic image to
express this notion of meandering, interweaving inner lines of thought that together create a whole: the arabesque.
The arabesque wall decorations in the Alhambra, for example, show a wonderful pattern of simplified or reduced plants in ongoing patterns, combined with
coloured ceramic tiles and inscriptions. These decorations are set in large panels, but their borders seem futile in their function of containing the internal energy and flow. Whereas the arabesque lines are detailed, their contribution at the
scale level of architecture and urban design may not be underestimated. Islamic
arabesques can be thought of as both art and science; they are mathematically
precise and elegant, but equally aesthetically pleasing.
Like the lines of research we want to develop, the arabesque is about crossing lines—literally and figuratively. The arabesque follows one line, but ends in
another, until that sublime yet uncanny moment occurs when the viewer feels
like losing himself in the infinity of ever expanding lines that seem to go on well
beyond the frame of the actual wall decoration. The arabesque can also easily
be seen as an ongoing invitation to look for these moments of flight that allow for
new design solutions by leaving the beaten tracks. They challenge us to seize
the opportunity, to change direction even if we do not know where the new line
will lead us in the end. Furthermore, this sheer abundance of intersecting lines
and patterns also reveals the generosity of the arabesque. This generosity appears in the careful and time-consuming calculation and humble execution of
these patterns whose beauty we can still enjoy centuries after they were created
and regardless of our creed. As such, the arabesque, just like research by design, becomes a space of mediation, offering a glimpse of the unknown and the
ungraspable that it tries to encircle with its almost perfectly drawn yet forever
searching lines.
144
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David Huycke,
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SUBSTANTIVE,
STRATEGIC AND SOCIETAL
ARGUMENTS FOR RESEARCH
IN THE ARTS
147
Research in the Arts
In the last decade, Flemish higher institutions of art education have organised
new activities in light of their integration in the universities. Among these manifold initiatives, the encouragement and support of research in the arts, specifically the PhD in the arts, have attracted most of the attention. Several PhDs in
the arts and other artistic research projects have now been finished. Meanwhile,
however, many players in the field, from the academic world as well as the art
world, have been critically discussing the definition, use, relevance, aims, and
features of such research in the arts. Often, a sceptical stance has been taken
towards the initial projects and towards the purpose of artistic research projects
in general. A seemingly logical consequence of this criticism has been questioning of the planned integration of higher art institutes in the universities and, consequently, of the need to organise and financially support this type of research,
which will ultimately bring creating artists and academia closer together.
Strangely, this criticism has been uttered as much by the academic world
(without taking the art world truly into consideration) as by the art world (without
taking the academic world into close consideration). Moreover, higher institutes
of art have taken over these unilateral arguments, often without taking their own
goals into consideration. However, both the academic world and the art world
generally use different criteria and output formats to evaluate and measure the
quality of research and art.
Within academia, the question has been whether an artist can actually
effectuate research in a serious way. Some of an artist’s activities during his or
her research in the arts can indeed hardly be recognised as research activities in
the strict, scientific sense. Measuring research in the arts by means of academic, scientific research criteria alone might lead to the conclusion that there is no
such thing as good research in the arts. And, if this line of thought is followed
somewhat further, there is hardly any artist with any relevance and fame in the
art world who will ever be a good researcher in the arts.
Within the art world, a recurrent question has been whether a researcher
in the arts is or will be a better artist because of formulated research. Some of
the activities effectuated in this specific field of research can indeed hardly be
recognised as activities that lead to better art (such as communication about
the proper methodology and purpose, the writing down of working processes,
history of the subject, etc.). Moreover, a common concern in the art world has
been whether research in the arts is not a means of supporting lousy artists via
an alternative subsidiary circuit. However, measuring research in the arts by
these criteria alone (is it better art? Is the researcher an excellent artist?), would
lead again to the conclusion that there can be no good research in the arts,
unless some of the research activities would be halted. If this line of thought is
developed further, only the very best artists, fully recognised by the international
art world, will ever be good researchers in the arts, which is in contradiction with
the conclusion above.
These descriptions of the positions taken by the academic world and by the
art world are of course oversimplified caricatures. Nevertheless, the comments
on artistic research could almost always be reduced to variants of these general
thought patterns. In the light of higher institutions of art integrating with univer-
149
sities, the concerns of both the academic world and the art world are relevant
to take into account. But the aims of research in the higher institutes of art differ
from the aims linked to activities in universities and art institutions. Therefore,
it is important for the higher institutions of art to be able to demonstrate for
themselves the relevance of research in the arts and to develop criteria for good
research in the arts. They should be able to explain what the purpose and use
are for the individual researcher in the arts (substantive arguments for research
in the arts), for the higher art institutions (strategic arguments for research in
the arts), and for society at large (societal arguments for research in the arts).
This article is an attempt at formulating some substantial, strategic and societal
arguments for research in the arts.
Substantive Arguments for Research in the Arts
in the arts is described as an interchange between the artistic or design practice
of the researcher on the one hand and a thorough reflection upon this practice
on the other hand (see figure 1). This interchange is driven by a relevant artistic
and conceptual contextualisation and has an explicit goal. The goal crystallises
during and by means of the interplay between practice and reflection upon this
practice, and can be communicated in ‘artistic’ media as well as ‘conceptual’ or
‘reflective’ media (written/spoken word). To make here a caricatural distinction,
it is of course not always so clearly defined: so-called artistic media can at the
same time be conceptual, whereas so-called conceptual media can take an
artistic form.
Artistic context
Many good artists and designers already have a researcher’s attitude in their
practice. This attitude, often driven by curiosity, is actually not so very different
from the research attitude of typical academic scholars, even though the means,
questions, methods, and output forms are obviously different. But what is the
purpose and value of this institutionalised research for the individual artist-researcher? Why would an artist want to do research, or what is, in other words,
the substantive relevance or benefit of research in the arts?
Looking at some ongoing and finished research projects, it is clear that by
the combination of practicing art and reflecting on the proper work and experiments, artists achieve better insight to their own artistic practices and the practices of others within the artistic context that they have to relate to. It is useful
for these insights and the interplay between ideas, inspiration, and concrete
realisations to be made transparent, first for the researcher and secondly for the
world around him or her. Consequently, the researcher/artist/designer will become better at evaluating his or her own work and become better at positioning
him- or herself in the field.
In order to constantly innovate and to create things that are meaningful and
relevant in a specific artistic context (in a single discipline or across disciplines),
it is important that artists and designers are offered enough time, space, and
possibilities for this kind of thorough research.
Whereas part of the knowledge about the artistic process used to be developed within the art sciences, art history, psychology and philosophy, it makes
sense for artists and designers to gain insight to their proper working processes
and methodologies rather than getting to know them through the eyes and pen
of someone else, thus by second hand. In order to write down such knowledge,
the ‘traditional’ art historian or scientist will have to communicate with the living
artist/designer, who therefore has to formulate his or her opinions and methods
after all. A common belief is that artists and designers lack the necessary distance to write and talk objectively about their own oeuvres, but are we not then
regarding them in a too-romantic yet at the same time denigrating way, as geniuses driven by inspiration and emotion but lacking rational skills, and therefore
in need of wise translators of their thoughts and actions?
At the Media, Arts and Design faculty, where several PhDs in the arts were
already defended and many others are ongoing, the ideal process of research
150
Artistic media
Practice
Contextualisation
Goal
Reflection
Conceptual context
Conceptual media
This view upon the process of research in the arts can be translated into concrete research projects in the arts through the denomination of the state of the
art, context, guiding research questions, methodology, aims, and presentation
and reporting of results and conclusions. Because of the research process
underlying a project, researchers in the arts are able to gain insight into their
own practices of developing new meaning, knowledge, and objects or designs.
Furthermore, the artist is now encouraged to communicate about that process in
a transparent way. The audience, then, is invited to look—so to speak—into the
head of the artist and learn about things that until then were ‘inexpressible’, a
rather new phenomenon in the art and design context.
The need for results to be communicable correlates with the quality of the
work itself. Artistic work and design will be accepted in the art field only when
it achieves a certain level of quality. This is one of the most important and most
challenging aspects of research in the arts: that research output is developed
and rated within the context of universities and schools, whereas the artwork is
developed and rated within the artistic domain.
151
Strategic Arguments for Research in the Arts
In light of the integration of higher art education in the academic world, higher
art schools have attributed many resources to research in the arts. But what is
the purpose of these research projects for the higher art institutes? Why should
they need research? What is the strategic relevance of research in the arts?
The foremost strategic reason for research in the arts is the optimisation of
education. Educating students in art and design should be more than rating and
giving feedback on their final results. Teaching students how to gain insight into
their own process of creation and how to generate new meaning based on these
processes can be aided by talking with them about these processes, helping
them to make their choices and methodologies explicit, and giving feedback.
In order to stimulate this research attitude at the level of students, teachers as
researchers or researchers as teachers are best positioned to do this.
Another strategic advantage of organising research in the arts in higher institutions of art is the development of a broader international network based on the
research projects and topics of artists and designers. This allows researchers
to present their results in the academic and artistic fields and at the same time
use these fields as providence. In turn, this network is used as a basis for the
international and national valorisation of research in the institution as a whole.
Making explicit the questions and results of research in the arts has the
additional potential of defining clusters of expertise. Researchers in the arts can
be grouped within different domains of expertise and interest or within research
groups based on their specific knowledge and artistic/design skills, just as this is
the case at the universities. This in turn leads to different and stronger profiles of
higher institutes of art, each focusing on different aspects based on the available
expertise of the researchers in the arts.
The view on the process of research in the arts as described above is—we
believe—a good support for exploiting these advantages on a strategic level.
Because research in the arts aims at a specific target that can be communicated, clusters of expertise can be defined, and the knowledge and skills contained
within can be used for setting up an international network based primarily on
the networks of each individual researcher in the arts. For the same reason,
this view on research in the arts forms a solid base for educational programs in
higher institutions of the arts.
because individual researchers in the arts operate in the world, the output of
their research becomes available in the cultural and economic domains of society. Both public and private domains in society can benefit from the cultural and
technological innovation that is contained within the results of these research
projects in the arts. Valorisation of research is classically attributed to the economic domain, but with regard to research in the arts, other domains of society
(cultural, social, etc.) can benefit as well . This, again, is only possible by asking
for results (of research in the arts) to be communicable.
Conclusion
Because the discourse about research in the arts is commonly based on arguments that stem from the academic world or from the artistic field, it is important
for higher institutions of art to formulate for themselves why research in the arts
should be organised within their organisations. This article is an attempt to formulate some counterarguments against the criticism that has been uttered with
regard to the institutionalisation of this kind of research.
Based on the substantive, strategic, and societal arguments formulated in favour of research in the arts, it becomes possible to describe what good research
in the arts consists of. Research in the arts is good when:
1. 2. 3. 4. It realises a valuable interchange between the art or design practice and
the reflection upon this practice, driven by a relevant contextualisation
and questioning and resulting in a goal that is communicable in a
conceptual and artistic way.
It contributes to a stronger positioning of the researcher’s artworks or
designs in the artistic field.
It has the potential to support educational programs and individual
students within higher institutes of art and contributes to the international network and the external profiling of these institutes.
Its results are relevant to society at large.
Societal Arguments for Research in the Arts
As a cultural phenomenon, research in the arts has a lot in common with existing art and design practices, which always relate to the world we are living in,
be it in a critical sense or not (really). Quite an output of research in the arts is
presented and communicated using the same presentation venues that artists
and designers do: museums, exhibitions, galleries, producers, etc. Next to that,
researchers in the arts now also attend and present at academic, scientific conferences. But what is the purpose of these research projects for the society at
large? Do we need them? What is the societal relevance of research in the arts?
In the first place, research projects in the arts can work as catalysts for
innovation within the specific discipline of the researcher in the arts. Moreover,
152
153
Projects,
Phd researchers
,
Junior researchers ,
Senior researchers
Iwert Bernakiewicz
Ann Bessemans
Geoffrey Brusatto
Patrick Ceyssens
Guy Cleuren
Sylvain De Bleeckere
Peter De Cupere
Roel De Ridder
Tine De Ruysser
Oswald Devisch
Ivan Dobrev
Sebastiaan Gerards
Sofie Gielis
Stan Hendrickx &
Merel Eyckerman
Jasmien Herssens
Saidja Heynickx
David Huycke
Hannah Joris
Yvonne Knevels
Tom Lambeens
Lore Langendries
Karen Lens
Sarah Martens
Kris Nauwelaerts
Christian Nolf
Ann Petermans
Kris Pint
Bie Plevoets
Katelijn Quartier
Niels Quinten
Remco Roes
Barbara Roosen
Jessica Schoffelen
Ellen Schroven
Simona Sofronie
Peter Snowdon
Marjan Sterckx
Ruth Stevens
Koenraad Van Cleempoel
Marijn Van de Weijer
Maarten Vanmechelen
Jan Vanrie
Griet Verbeeck
Lieve Weytjens
Bert Willems
Karen Wuytens
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177
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Iwert Bernakiewicz
Project
Envisioning the Architectural Design Process
raw design material and transcripts
• The
of interviews
Heike Löhmann explains the design process
during the interview session
• The first intuitive steps towards a scheme
51n4e design process
159
Envisioning
Architectural design process
Reflection
Representation
Ann Bessemans
Junior researcher
Matilda – Type Design for children with low vision
Geoffrey Brusatto
Phd researcher
The shape of the paper book to come
phase of Matilda
• Sketching
2010
2012
• Zone,
bounded book, videostill
A B, 2012
• Notes
Booklet, videostill
phase within the development
• Aofdesign
the capitals of Matilda, 2011
Zone, 2012
Plano sheet
Matilda regular & bold
in full development, 2011
The presentation of the glyphs of
a revised version of Matilda, 2011
sequence, 2012
• Formal
Design for the plano sheet
Zone, 2012
Uncut folded sheet
lot of sketching happened before
• AMatilda
was born, 2009
Prof. Dr. h.c. Gerard Unger (Universiteit Leiden)
Prof. Dr. Bert Willems (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
160
Type Design
Typography
Legibility Research
Low Vision
Ergonomics
Prof. Dr. Marjan Sterckx (MAD-faculty / UHasselt en UGent)
Prof. Dr. Jan Baetens (K.U.Leuven)
161
Book - & graphic design
Tactility
Interactivity
Patrick Ceyssens
Phd researcher
From the mimesis in a moment to a mental matrix
Guy Cleuren
Project
Challenging water-related industry
for a hybrid greenhouse
• Proposal
by Robbert Errico
Commutation #1
• Transfusion #1
for more sustainable
• Strategies
water-related industries
• Reposition #3
• Interferences #1
Proposal for a ‘landscape factory’
by Mattijs Brands
Transition #5
Prof. Dr. Dirk Kenis (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
Prof. Dr. Frank Van Reeth (UHasselt)
162
Processes of visualization
Other tracks in a image
Interpretation and translation through indirect information
163
Research-By-Design
Societal Challenges
Landscape Analysis
Sylvain De Bleeckere
Senior researcher
Peter De Cupere
Phd researcher
When scent makes seeing, when seeing makes scents
De Bleeckere, S., Gerards, S., (2013)
Communal Housing. A Critical
Review of Flemish Habitat, in: Monu.
Magazine on Urbanism # 18, Spring
2013, pp. 64-69. (ISSN 1860-3211)
De Bleeckere, Sylvain, (2012),
Het aards paradijs als zinnebeeld.
Beschouwingen bij The New World en
The Tree of Life van Terrence Malick.
Men(S)tis, Hasselt. (ISBN 978 90 8051
653 3)
De Bleeckere, Sylvain,
(2012), Aural Architecture and its
Phenomenological Roots, in: Jacquet,
Bernard, Giraud, Vincent, (ed.), From
Things Themselves: Architecture
and Phenomenology. Kyoto, Kyoto
University Press, 2012, pp. 41-60.
(ISBN 978-4-87698-235-6)
De Bleeckere, Sylvain,
(2012), “Beyond” Immanence and
Transcendence: Reflections in the
Mirror of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei
Roublev and Solaris, in: Stoker,
Wessel, Willem L. van der Merwe,
(ed.), Looking Beyond? Shifting Views
of Transcendence in Philosophy,
Theology, Art, and Politics. (Currents
of Encounter. Studies on the contact
between Christianity and other
religions, beliefs and cultures. Vol. 12)
Amsterdam, New York, Rodopi,
2012, pp. 471-486. [ISBN 978-90-4203473-0]
De Bleeckere, Sylvain, (20112),
Gedachtenis. Over zinmo(nu)menten.
Men(S)tis, Hasselt (ISBN 978 90 8051
650 2)
Seminarie Cultuur 2012-2013 tijdens het
ontwerpend onderzoek o.l.v. S. De Bleeckere
Herdefiniëring van het kerkgebouw o.l.v.
S. De Bleeckere, Roel De Ridder
uit The Piranesi Variations
• Detail
(Peter Eisenman), Architectuur Biënnale
Venetië 2012
Making of Blind Smell Stick BSS2, 2012
Blind Smell Sticks and Blind Smell
• Prototypes
Touch, Exhibition: World Creativity Biennale,
Rio de Janeiro, 2012
• Detail Blind Smell Stick P1, 2012
• Breath Odor, Smell Device, 2013
Making of Blind Smell Stick BBS3, 2012
164
Democracy
Research by Design
Religious Heritance
Postmodernisme
Prof. Dr. Willem Elias (VUBrussel)
Prof. Dr. David Huycke (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
165
Olfactory Art Research
Smell Installation s
Smell Concept Devices
Concept Flowers
Scent Paintings
Art of smelling
Roel De Ridder
Junior researcher
The Public Performance of the Church Building:
a new strategy for the architectural theoretical redefinition and
the applied revaluation of the Flemish Parish Churches
of different shapes that can be
• Samples
achieved with similar accordon patterns.
in the medium size village of Schulen
Lina Bo Bardi’s SESC Pompeia (São Paulo)
as an example of a social performance approach
in architecture / architectural interventions
of the building
Junior researcher
Wearable Metal Origami?
The Design and Manufacture of Metallised Folding Textiles
interior of Saint John’s church,
• The
a non-listed Flemish parish church
of Schulen’s parish church were
• Models
used to trace the social performance
Tine De Ruysser
the possibility of folding silver clay in a
• Testing
tessellating pattern. Sample after firing.
Applying Titanium Putty through a stencil as
a possible method of creating platelets for
model-making purposes. Method unsuccessful:
edges are untidy and platelets are brittle.
The question whether an ordinary parish
church could function (again) as a convivial
space was answered gradually
(picture: Pieter Neefs’ 17th century Interior of a
Gothic Church)
Range of early folding samples.
of different post-production techniques,
• Samples
or finishing-techniques. Including patination
A hybrid forum approach to tackle the issues
at hand was tested during more model trials
which took place in Saint John’s itself.
and lacquering.
Testing whether the fabric can be stretched
over a pre-treated sheet of stainless steel
instead of making the fabric itself conductive.
Sheet of stainless steel and fabric sample side
by side.
Prof. Dr. Sylvain De Bleeckere
166
Pragmatic
Participatory
Issue
Actor
Forum
Prof. David Watkins (Royal College of Art, London)
Dr. Beatriz Chadour-Sampson (Royal College of Art, London)
Prof. Michael Rowe (Royal College of Art, London)
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Folding-Flexibility
Metalwork and Jewellery
Practice-based research
Cross-disciplinary
Oswald Devisch
Senior researcher
Ivan Dobrev
Phd researcher
Troyan Ceramics in the Light of Contemporary Sculpture
Kastanje – disclosing heritage in a landscape
setting. Financed by the Province of Limburg
(Collage by Chris Indeherberge).
to facilitate the participatory
• Research
development of interactive village design
statements. Financed by PDPO, in cooperation
with Stebo vzw.
Research by design for spatial strategies to
restructure ribbon development. Financed by
the Province of Limburg
(Map by Liesbet Thewissen).
Research on urban planning as coproduction:
towards a set of instruments supporting
negotiating by design. Financed by SBO,
in cooperation with OSA, KULeuven.
Devisch, O. & Veestraeten, D., 2013.
From Sharing to Experimenting: How
Mobile Technologies Are Helping
Ordinary Citizens Regain Their
Positions as Scientists. Journal of
Urban Technology, 20(2), pp. 63-76.
Devisch, O., 2012. Urbanism as
a way of life … in non-urban areas.
MONU 16, pp. 41-45.
Devisch, O., 2012. The metaverse
as lab to experiment with problems of
organized complexity. In: De Roo, G.,
Hillier, J. & Van Wezemael, J. (Eds.),
Complexity and Planning: Systems,
Assemblages and Simulations (New
Directions in Planning Theory).
Ashgate Publishers, pp. 345-366.
Devisch, O., Arentze, T., Borgers,
A. & Timmermans, H., 2009. An
agent-based model of residential
choice dynamics in non-stationary
housing markets. Environment and
Planning A, 41(8), pp. 1997–2013.
Devisch, O., 2008. Should
planners start playing computergames? Arguments from SimCity and
Second Life. Planning Theory and
Practice, 9(2), pp. 209-226.
of design types based
• Experiment
on Troyan ceramics technique
Study patterns on Troyan ceramics, I
Serie of sketches around the figure
as subject to ceramics
• Study patterns on Troyan ceramics, II
improvisation – reconstructions of the
• Urban
interplay of private and public initiatives in spatial
• Drawing for a sculpture
transformation processes. Financed by the
Netherlands Architecture Fund, in cooperation
with Import Export Architecture.
168
Spontaneous spatial
transformations
Urban improvisation
Spatial capacity building
Collective efficacy
New media
Prof. Dr. David Huycke (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
Prof. Dr. Bert Willems (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
169
Troyan ceramic pottery
Contemporary figurative sculpture
Color ornamental motifs
Sebastiaan Gerards
Phd researcher
Sofie Gielis
Senior researcher
Multigenerational Housing: Framing, Designing and
Implementing a New Housing Concept for Flanders
picture of mediaeval béguinage
• Recent
Ten Wijngaarde in Bruges.
Gielis, S. (2007) Literatuur in
spreidstand. Mengvormen van
beschouwing en verhaal in de
postmoderne Nederlandstalige
roman. [Phd dissertation]
Gielis, S. (2007) Krol tussen
waarheid en werkelijkheid. In: Bart
Vervaeck & Ad Zuiderent (eds.)
Gerrit Krol, Werken op het snijpunt.
Amsterdam: Rozenberg.
Gielis, S. (2006) Schizophrenic
philosophy and gender in disguise:
the postmodern case of M. Februari.
In: Dutch Crossing 30 (1).
Gielis, S., Groes B. (eds.) (2005)
Randwandelingen. DW&B 150 (4).
[issue on the shadow side of cities]
Gielis, S. (2004) ‘de vele spiegels
kunnen je verraden’ Echo’s in De
procedure van Harry Mulisch. In:
Nederlandse Letterkunde 9 (2).
Gielis, S. (2004) Knipoog in het
land der blinden. Het lachen van M.
Februari. In: DW&B 149 (5).
Gielis, S. (2004) Woord vermoord.
Ethiek en invalshoek bij Gerrit Krol.
In: Voortgang. Jaarboek voor de
Neerlandistiek XXII. Amsterdam/
Münster: Stichting Neerlandistiek VU
Amsterdam & Nodus Publikationen.
• (Image ©Geoffrey Brusatto)
(Image ©Sylvain De Bleeckere)
Eng’ in Albertslund (Denmark).
• ‘Lange
Designed by Dorte Mandrup Architects.
(Image ©Sebastiaan Gerards)
Common courtyard of the Haringrokerij in
Antwerp. Designed by Stramien.
(Image © Stramien)
‘Lange Eng’ in Albertslund (Denmark).
Designed by Dorte Mandrup Architects.
(Image ©Sebastiaan Gerards)
project ‘Wohn(t)raum’ by Sebastiaan
• Master
Gerards. (Image ©Sebastiaan Gerards)
Prof. Dr. Sylvain De Bleeckere
170
Dwelling
Communal
Design
Implementation
Flanders
171
Coordinator of research group story image code (sic)
Narrativity
Cross-medial narratology
Word and image interaction
Contemporary Dutch prose
Stan Hendrickx & Merel Eyckerman
Project
Non-fiction graphic illustration by the example
of excavations in Egypt
Jasmien Herssens
Junior researcher
Designing for more, a frame of haptic design parameters
with the experience of people born blind
Provenance unknown. Tusk figurine, ca. 3200
BC. Brussels, Royal Museums for Art and History
E.2331a (HENDRICKX, S. & EYCKERMAN, M.,
Tusks and tags. Between the hippopotamus and
the Naqada plant [in:] FRIEDMAN, R.F. & FISKE,
P.N. (eds.), Egypt at its Origins 3. Proceedings of
the International Conference “Origin of the State.
Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, London,
27th July - 1st August 2008. Orientalia Lovaniensia
Analecta 205. Leuven, 2011: 511, fig. 15)
Herssens, J. (2013). Design(ing)
for more- towards a global design
approach and local methods. Include
Asia 2013 Proceedings, Helen Hamlyn
Research Centre and Hong Kong
Design Centre, Hong Kong, ISBN 9781-907342-70-7. http://www.hhc.rca.
ac.uk/5501/all/1/proceedings.aspx.
Herssens, J., Heylighen, A.
(2012). Blind Photographers: an
(im)material quest into the spatial
experience of blind children. Children,
youth and environments, 22 (1),
99-124.
Herssens, J., Roelants, L.,
Rychtáriková, M., Heylighen, A. (2011).
Listening in the Absence of Sight: The
Sound of Inclusive Environments.
Include 2011, Helen Hamlyn research
centre, London, ISBN 978-1-90734229-5, http://www.hhc.rca.ac.uk/3845/
all/1/proceedings.aspx.
Herssens, J., Heylighen A. (2011)
Challenging Architects to Include
Haptics in Design: Sensory Paradox
between Content and Representation.
In: Leclercq, P., Martin, G., Heylighen,
A., (Eds.). Designing together,
CAADfutures 2011, Liège, 685-700.
Herssens, J. (2011) Designing
Architecture for More: A Framework
of Haptic Design Parameters with the
Experience of People Born Blind.,
PHD thesis, Hasselt UniversityKULeuven. http://www.jherssens.com/
publications-presentations/designingarchitecture-for-more.aspx.
Picture of a ball taken by a blind child
(Image: anonymous blind photographer
for Jasmien Herssens, 2009)
el-Bersha, tomb of Henu. Model of
• Deir
brickmakers, ca. 2100 BC (EYCKERMAN, M. &
HENDRICKX, S., Visuele documentatie van de
grafmodellen uit het graf van Henu te Deir
el-Bersha (Egypte). ArcK, 2 (2008): 86, fig. 13)
Children listening to the soundscape
of the Stadshal in Ghent,
(Image : Nikki Bollen, Jasmine Klute,
Lore Vandecan, Lore Reynders, 2013)
tomb H41, artistic interpretation of
• el-Mahasna,
damaged comb. Brussels, Royal Museums for
temple of Osiris, M64. Serekh object.
• Abydos,
Cairo, Egyptian Museum, ca. 3000 BC (HEND-
RICKX, S.; FRIEDMAN, R.F. & EYCKERMAN, M.,
Early falcons [in:] MORENZ, L. & KUHN, R. (ed.),
Vorspann oder formative Phase ? Ägypten und
der Vordere Orient 3500-2700 v. Chr. Philippika
48. Wiesbaden, 2011: 142, fig. 16)
Art and Art and History E.2955. (EYCKERMAN,
M. & HENDRICKX, S., The Naqada I tombs H17
and H41 at el-Mahasna, a visual reconstruction
[in:] FRIEDMAN, R.F. & FISKE, P.N. (eds.), Egypt
at its Origins 3. Proceedings of the International
Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and
Early Dynastic Egypt”, London, 27th July - 1st
August 2008. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta
205. Leuven, 2011: 409, fig. 53).
172
representation techniques
• Haptic
(Image: Jasmien Herssens, 2011)
Graphic illustration
Object visualisation
Egyptian archaeology
Prof. Dr. Bert Willems (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
Prof. Dr. Ann Heylighen (K.U.Leuven)
173
Design(ing) for All
Universal Design
Inclusive design methodology
Multisensory
Diversity
Saidja Heynickx
Project
The observation sketch as a tool for (interior)architects
David Huycke
Senior researcher
The Metamorphic Ornament: Re_Thinking Granulation
Spread in sketchbook 2012
• Design drawing of ‘Fragilty’
Lisbon Portugal - 2011, observation
square ‘Largo do Chiado’
• Design drawings of ‘Black Snow’
Portugal - 2011, observation
• Cascais
‘casa das historias’
Order for free: granules creating
regular patterns through self-organization
Portugal - 2011, observation
• Lisbon
square ‘Largo do Barao Quintela’
• Order & Chaos #1, 2007
Lisbon Portugal - 2011, observation
square ‘Largo do chiado’
David Huycke TIG-welding and
making ‘Fractal Chaos’
174
Phenomenological observation
handwritten annotations
Memory construction
(Re)presentation
Tactility and reflection
Prof. Dr. Leo De Ren (K.U.Leuven)
Prof. Dr. Marjan Sterckx (MAD-faculty / UHasselt en UGent)
175
Granulation
Object
Order & Chaos
Sculptural silverwork
Hannah Joris
Phd researcher
Via the body. A research on the expression
of the human condition through body fragmentation –
jewelry art as contemporary relics
Yvonne Knevels
Project
Observing and mapping methods for the architectural site,
relying on methods from visual art
Intuitive observation (snapshot)
of a foot (Bone), 2010,
• Study
190x70x40mm, yam, iron
Series observation
(Pinned Pleurant), 2012,
• Untitled
210x148mm, pencil on paper
Developing the series observation
Study of a foot (Fragment), 2010,
60x80x40mm, yam
• Color observation
• Intuitive observation through sketching
Untitled (Flesh Awaiting),
210x148mm, pencil and Chinese ink on paper
of a torso (Torn), 2012,
• Study
297x210mm
Prof. dr. Bert Willems (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
Prof. dr. Barbara Baert (K.U.Leuven)
176
Body
Condition humaine
The fragment
Object-as-body/counterpart
Loss
177
Identity of the location
Multi-sensorial observation
Walking
Multi-layered map
Graphic representation
Tom Lambeens
Junior researcher
Sensation & Visual Gravity
Lore Langendries
Phd researcher
HUNACTURING - Contemporary jewellery & objects questioning
the nature of reproduction via a fusion of natural materials and
mechanical treatment, within an industrial context
Front back, Composition VI, 2009,
Ink on paper
Study, 2011,
• Horizon
Ink on paper
- Springbuck back - Fragment,
• Experiment
2013, Square 80 x 80 mm,
Springbuck #1 (Brooch),
• Ringed
2012, 100 x 150 x 10mm, Silver and
Springbuck hide, Lasercutting
Springbuck skin - Black, Lasercutting
Arme indiaan (Poor Indian), page 8,
2008, Pencil on paper
- Patterns, 2013,
• Experiments
Squares 220 x 220 mm, Cow leather,
Lasercutting - Engraving
aanval (The Offensive), page 6,
• De
2012, Ink on paper
Springbuck Fragmentation #1 (Brooch),
2013, 210 x 70 x 9mm, Springbuck hide - brown,
bamboo veneer, Mdf and magnets, Lasercutting
Experiment - Sheep skin Pattern, 2013,
150 x 60 mm, Sheep skin - close up,
Lasercutting
indiaan (Poor Indian), page 11,
• Arme
2008, Pencil on paper
Prof. Dr. Kris Pint (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
178
Image analysis
Formal concepts
Visual narratology
Experimental graphic novels
Prof. Dr. Ludo Froyen (K.U.Leuven)
Prof. Dr. Bert Willems (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
179
Hunacturing
Nature
Human
Manufacturing
Reproduction
Animal
Unique
Karen Lens
Sarah Martens
Phd researcher
The meaning and possibilities of research through design
supporting adaptive reuse of monastic sites - aspects
of method, typology and program
How to make public spatial issues of rural villages?
An action-research towards a platform to act on and debate
with villagers, local actors and regional organizations
in an orchard of Hoepertingen to
• Debate
conclude an interactive walk with villagers
where we triggered them to formulate ideas on
design challenges in their neighbourhood.
with frame fill-in cards
• Inventory
(using geo-portal based GIS) toward
sub-typologies and models.
Phd researcher
Scheme of working method to
design the game ‘Maak het dorp!’
reuse monastery • Adaptive
Antwerp Witzusters community home elderly
people (Belgium) - architect Jo Crepain
(Image ©Karen Lens)
• as an ongoing practice
Scheme of participation
•
Adaptive reuse monastery - Groot-Bijgaarden
Flemish Lasalliaans Perspective (Belgium)
(Image ©architect tcct)
Participatory workshop with regional
organizations and administrators to design
the label ‘Mooiste dorpen van Haspengouw’
Panorama picture of Hoepertingen,
Haspengouw, stage for the locative game
‘Maak het dorp’
• Sub-typologies monastic sites - examples.
Adaptive reuse monastery Louviers Ecole de la musique (France)
(Image ©architect OPUS 5)
Prof. Dr. Koenraad Van Cleempoel (UHasselt)
180
Adaptive reuse
(Interior) Architecture
Hybrid programs
(Research (through) Design)
Monastic Sites
Prof. Dr. Oswald Devisch (UHasselt)
181
Public debate
Collective action
Dissensus
Long-term engagement
Local identity
Kris Nauwelaerts
Phd researcher
Research on the relation between visual literacy
and postmodern picturebooks with pictures showing
references to the fine arts
Christian Nolf
Phd researcher
Challenges of upstream water management and the spatial
structuring of the nebulous city
• Flanders and the Schelde river bassin
zoek naar mij, E. Franck (text),
• Op
K. Nauwelaerts (images), De Eenhoorn, 2013.
of (old) Flemish towns in relation
• Positioning
to the river system
Op zoek naar mij, E. Franck (text),
K. Nauwelaerts (images), De Eenhoorn, 2013.
Spatial implications of preventive water
policies in Flanders
• Research by design (Stierembeek, Genk)j
• Preparatory sketches, 2012
Genesis of the complex water
management in Flanders
Prof. Dr. Bert Willems (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
182
Postmodern picturebooks
Visual literacy
Image-word interaction
Prof. Dr. Oswald Devisch (UHasselt)
Prof. Dr. Bruno de Meulder (K.U.Leuven)
183
Flanders
Urban design
Research-by-design
Water management
Urban dispersion
Ann Petermans
Junior researcher
Kris Pint
Senior researcher
Retail design in the experience economy: conceptualizing and
‘measuring’ customer experiences in retail environments
Moon/roof horizon,
Ghent (BE), 2005.
Boon chocolate store, Hasselt
Pint, K. (2013). Bachelard’s House
Revisited: Toward a New Poetics of
Space. Interiors. 4 (2), 109-124.
Pint, K. (2013). If these Walls
could Walk. Architecture as a
Deformative Scenography of the Past.
In: Plate, Liedeke; Smelik, Anneke
[eds.]. Performing Memory in Art and
Popular Culture. New York (pp. 123134). Oxon/New York: Routledge
Pint, K. (2012). The Avatar as a
Methodological Tool for the Embodied
Exploration of Virtual Environments.
CLC Web, Thematic Issue: New Work
on Landscape and Its Narration. Sofie
Verraest, Bart Keunen, and Katrien
Bollen [eds.]. 14 (3). Accessible at
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/
vol14/iss3/3/
Pint, K. (2010). The Perverse
Art of Reading. On the phantasmatic
semiology in Roland Barthes’ Cours
au Collège de France. Amsterdam/
New York: Rodopi.
Pint, K. (2008). The fantasy of K.
Exhibition environments as autopoetic
spaces of communication. In: Basso
Peressut, L. e.a. [eds.]. Places and
themes of interiors. Contemporary
Research Worldwide (pp. 29- 36).
Milano: FrancoAngeli.
Eclipsed Moonlight/Neon,
Diest (BE), 2011.
• The Experience Web
ombres de l’été’ – Beach cabin,
• ‘Les
Wimereux (FR), 2007.
• Ann Demeulemeester store, Antwerp
Apple Store, New York
‘Intimité’ – Beach cabin,
Wimereux (FR), 2007.
Dominicanen, Maastricht
• Selexyz
(source: Aldershoff, 2010)
Prof. Dr. Koenraad Van Cleempoel (UHasselt)
184
Interior architecture
Design for experience
Design for wellbeing
Customer experience
Retail design
185
Cultural theory
Phenomenology
Semiotics
Scenography
Visual analysis
Bie Plevoets
Phd researcher
An Interior Approach to Adaptive Reuse of Buildings:
Retail-Reuse as a Case Study
Katelijn Quartier
Junior researcher
Retail Design: Lighting as a Design Tool
for the Retail Environment
Raad Van Staten Amsterdam
(foto Katerin Theys)
•
Retail design from an interior
designer’s view
Iglesia San Fernando Madrid
(foto Lien Dodion)
of the simulated lab, built on
• Interior
our campus. Author’s collection, 2008
Communication model. Research
• Retail
can be limited to one aspect or can include
every aspect of the SOR-model
Manufaktura Lodz Polen
Hubertusgallerij Brussel
• Sint
(foto Yannis Tsatsos)
Park Avenue Armory
(copyright Herzog & de Meuron)
Prof. Dr. Koenraad Van Cleempoel (UHasselt)
timeline of the history of retail
• Graphical
from 1850 till 1998
186
Adaptive Reuse
Interior Architecture
Heritage Conservation
Retail Design
Prof. Dr. Koenraad Van Cleempoel (UHasselt)
187
Retail design
Interior Architecture
Atmosphere
Lighting
Consumer perception
Niels Quinten
Phd researcher
Physical serious gaming – Considering the aesthetics
of digital games for fine motor skill rehabilitation
of a game prototype
• Assessment
by a rehabilitation therapist
Remco Roes
Phd researcher
The scenography of sublime space
Study of combining rehabilitation
and games
Detail of the exhibition
“Exercises of the man” in B-Gallery,
Brussels, May 2013
view of
• Installation
“Archive of the uncategorised vi”
Minimalistic game-menu
for the exhibition “RE:converse”
in Beringen, June-September 2012
sheet used to animate
• Sprite
in-game elements
view
• Installation
“Archive of the uncategorised iii”
for the exhibition “Wonderful World”
in Gallery Pinsart, Bruges, July 2012
screenshot of a minimalistic
• In-game
rehabilitation game
view “Exercises of the man”
• Installation
for the exhibition “Open Circuit Extended”
in Kunstencentrum België,
June-September 2012
of the installation
• Detail
“Archive of the uncategorised iii”
for the exhibition “Wonderful World”
in Gallery Pinsart, Bruges, July 2012
Prof. Dr. Karin Coninx (UHasselt)
188
Video Games
Physical Rehabilitation
Fun
Prof. Dr. Kris Pint (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
189
Sublime
Scenography
Zen
Artistic research
Barbara Roosen
Phd researcher
Residential subdivisions in polycentric Flanders:
Gardens as integrative devices for collective (re)qualification
Hoepertingen:
• Make
Scenario building on the spatial transformation
of a residential neighbourhood with residents
throughout an interactive walk.
Jessica Schoffelen
Phd researcher
Sharing is caring. Documenting design to trigger participation
profiles to trigger ownership in a
• Documenting
participatory design research project
Residential subdivisions are characterized
by single-use, stand alone houses and
private space on well-defined sites.
concerning air pollution in Genk-Zuid
the design process of a project
• Documenting
concerning air pollution in Genk-Zuid.
Exhibition DUMONT 2090 & Manifesta 9
• Exploring scenarios as documentation
The single-family house with a garden remains
the most popular building form in Flanders.
the subdivision model in
• Rethinking
relation to landscape qualities:
Existing residential subdivisions and potentially
to develop inner yards in Hoepertingen.
Development of a documentation toolkit to
support design teams to document and share
their project. Documenting perspectives
the role of gardens and
• Investigating
underperforming asphalt in the transformation
Development of a documentation toolkit
to support design teams to document and
share their project.
Manual: how to create design scenarios
process towards territorial and organizational
collectives.
Prof. Dr. Oswald Devisch (UHasselt)
190
Residential subdivisions
Urban tactics
Shared space
Gardens
Community empowerment
Prof. Dr. Oswald Devisch (UHasselt)
191
Documentation,
Sharing
Participation
Complex design issues
Ellen Schroven
Phd researcher
Simona Sofronie
Phd researcher
Archive of fragments, traces and (potential) transitions
A location - based game to visualize spatial tactics
still: composition of
• Video
pins and shadows
process of construction of the
• The
environmental image
of twenty photographs: a mountain
• Series
landscape becomes a composition of forms
on printed video still: flying
• Drawings
birds captured in geometrical figures
use of locative technologies for
• The
ethnographic game play
and colors by rephotographing and printing
the same picture over and over again
Missions in the game Cure for the Campus
• Missions in the game Cure for the Campus
Detail of the installation ‘light drawings concrete window’ in wpZimmer, Antwerp,
january 2013
Missions in the game Cure for the Campus
Video still: making visible what is
absent by assembling the fragments
Prof. Dr. Stéphane Symons (K.U.Leuven)
192
Archive
Traces
Transitions
Prof. Dr. Oswald Devisch (UHasselt)
193
Participatory urban planning
Spatial tactics
Environmental image
Game design
Locative and social media
Peter Snowdon
Phd researcher
Marjan Sterckx
Senior researcher
The revolution will be uploaded. Vernacular video
and documentary film practice after the Arab spring
Yvonne Serruys and Georges Despret, Vase,
glasspaste, ca. 1906, 16,5 cm h., signature
“Despret”, production number “1012”,
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia.
frames from The Uprising (Rien à voir/
• Still
Third Films, work in progress), a feature-length
Hoffman on top of her statue
• Malvina
Anglo-American Friendship, on the facade of
montage film based on online video footage from
the Arab revolutions.
Prof. Dr. Erik Moonen (UHasselt)
Bush House in Londen, 1925. © Research
Library, The Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles, California.
194
Documentary
Found footage
Youtube
Subjectivity
Agency
Sterckx, M., ‘Goodbye hero! On the
destruction of monuments’, in:
J. Tollebeek & E. Van Assche (eds.),
Ravage (Mercatorfonds, [in press,
2014]).
Sterckx, M., ‘Van vazen tot
naakten. Glazen kunstobjecten als
resultaat van de samenwerking
tussen industrieel Georges Despret
en kunstenaar Yvonne Serruys
(ca. 1905-1910)’, Anna Bergmans
(ed.), Gentse Bijdragen tot de
Interieurgeschiedenis, 36 [in press,
2013].
Sterckx, M. & L. Engelen,
‘Between Studio and Snapshot: BelleÉpoque Picture Postcards of Urban
Statues’, History of Photography,
[in press, 2013].
Sterckx, M., ‘ “Une fleur que
ses yeux éteints ne peuvent plus
contempler”. Women’s sculpture
for the dead (ca. 1750-1940)’, in:
B. Fowkes Tobin & M. Daly Goggin
(eds.), Women and the Material
Culture of Death (Surrey, UK &
Burlington, USA: Ashgate, [in press,
2013]).
Sterckx, M. & J. Wijnsouw, ‘De
kunsttentoonstellingen: “Een zekere
vergelijking onderling”’, in: Wouter
Van Acker & Christophe Verbruggen,
Gent 1913. Op het breukvlak van de
moderniteit. (Heule: Uitgeverij Snoeck
N.V., 2013), 170-185.
195
Sterckx, M., Sisyphus’ Dochters.
Vrouwelijke beeldhouwers en hun
werk in de publieke ruimte (Parijs,
Londen, Brussel, ca. 1770-1953)
[Sisyphus’ Daughters. Women
Sculptors and Their Work in the Public
Space], 2 vols (Brussels: KVAB Press
– Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie
van België voor Wetenschappen en
Kunsten, Peeters Publishers, 2012).
Sterckx, M. & L. Engelen,
‘Remembering Edith and Gabrielle.
Picture postcards of monuments
as portable lieux de mémoire’, in:
B. Vandermeulen & D. Veys (eds.),
Imaging History. Photography after the
Fact (Brussels: ASP Publishers, 2011)
87-103.
Sterckx, M., ‘ “Le titre, non, mais
des commandes.” La participation
des femmes sculpteurs à la sculpture
publique à Paris au Second Empire’,
in A. Rivière (ed.), Sculpture’Elles, Les
sculpteurs femmes du XVIIIe siècle à
nos jours (Paris: Somogy, 2011) 214217.
Sterckx, M., ‘The Invisible
‘Sculpteuse’? Sculptures made by
Women in the Nineteenth-Century
Metropolis’, Nineteenth-Century Art
Worldwide. A journal of nineteenthcentury visual culture, 7:2 (2008).
Sterckx, M., ‘Pride and Prejudice.
Eighteenth-Century Women Sculptors
and Their Material Practices’, in: J.
Batchelor & C. Kaplan (eds.), Women
and Material Culture, 1660-1830
(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan,
2007) 86-102.
Art history
Art and industry
Public art/ sculpture
Monuments and photography
Art and gender
The long 19th century
Ruth Stevens
Phd researcher
Koenraad Van Cleempoel
Senior researcher
Mapping the tension between objective well-being and
subjective well-being in residential care centers.
The way interior architecture can influence living experience
of elderly people residing in residential care
of a planispheric astrolabe attributed
• Detail
to Petrus Ab Aggere,c. 1600, Madrid (Madrid,
• Senior Housing Masans (Zumthor)
Van Cleempoel, K.(ed.) (2006)
Astrolabes at Greenwich, A Catalogue
of the Astrolabes in the National
Maritime Museum, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Review in Nature
444, 39 (2 November 2006)
Van Cleempoel, K. (2009),
Philip II’s Escorial and its Collection
of Scientific Instruments’, Giorgio
Strano, Stephen Johnston, Mara
Miniati, Alison Morrison-Low (eds.),
European Collections of Scientific
Instruments: 1550-1750 (History of
Science and Medicine Library, vol. 10),
Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Van Cleempoel, K. (2011),
‘The Migration of ‘Materialised
Knowledge’ from Flanders to Spain in
the Person of the Sixteenth-century
Flemish Instrument Maker Pertus
Ab Aggere’, in S. Dupré & C. Lüthy,
Silent Messengers: The Circulation of
Material Objects of Knowledge in the
Early Modern Low Countries, Berlin:
LIT Verlag.
Petermans, A., Janssens, W.
& Van Cleempoel (2013), A holistic
framework for conceptualizing
customer experiences in retail
environments. International Journal
of Design, 7(2).
Plevoets, B. & Van Cleempoel, K.
(2013). Adaptive reuse as an emerging
discipline: an historic survey. In G.
Cairns (Ed.), Reinventing architecture
and interiors: a socio-political view
on building adaptation (pp. 13-32).
London: Libri Publishers.
Van de Weijer, M., Van
Cleempoel, K., Heynen, H. (2013),
Positioning Research and Design
in Academia and Practice. a
Contribution to a Continuing Debate.
Design Issues / Designissues.
Interior of Escorial Library, Juan de Herrera,
El Esorical, c. 1580
Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia)
of a corridor
• Example
in a residential care center
Anonymous, Linder Gallery Interior –
Allegory of Pictura & Disegno,
Antwerp, c. 1620 (Private Collection)
Selexyz Dominicanen:
bookstore in Gothic church, Maastricht
Example of a corridor
in a residential care center
Prof. Dr. Jan Vanrie (UHasselt)
196
Subjective well-being
Residential care centers
Interior architecture
Visual based conversation
197
History of Renaissance
Science & Art
Representations of interiors
Theory of adaptive reuse
Marijn Van de Weijer
Phd researcher
Large dwellings in Flanders. Development of architectural
and users strategies in view of demographic trends
and ecological constraints
Maarten Vanmechelen
Phd researcher
Co-design with children in the fuzzy front end of design
packet designed for 9- to 10• Sensitizing
year-olds in the context of a project in
cooperation with Cultuurnet Vlaanderen.
Aim: stimulating reection and creativity
before the actual co-design sessions.
Post war Flemish detached dwellings have
been constructed in many variations, but have a
generous spatial footprint in common.
with a clear and efficient structure
• Dwellings
and organisational system show potential
to 10-year-old children from a secundary
• 9-school
in Berchem collaborating during an initial
co-design session in the context of a project in
cooperation with Cultuurnet Vlaanderen.
for adaptive re-use, in line with smaller
household compositions which result
from societal developments.
The different roles of children in the design
and research development process.
Adaptation of Druin’s onion model, 2002.
These detached dwellings add up to 36%
of the Flemish housing stock, and are built all
across the territory, forming a nebula of
low-density settlement patterns.
A simplied view of the design and research
development process.
of re-use and transformation further
• Feasibility
depends on location, infrastructure, landscape
and local planning regulations.
categories of methods used in the fuzzy
• Different
front end of design. Say methods (e.g. interviews,
focus groups), do methods (e.g. observations),
make methods (e.g. paper prototyping).
Adaptation of Sanders’ model, 1999.
dwellings show a generous spatial
• Many
organisation, combining over dimensioned
served spaces as well as serving spaces.
Prof. Dr. Koenraad Van Cleempoel (UHasselt)
Prof. Dr. Hilde Heynen (K.U.Leuven)
198
Housing
Single family dwellings
The dispersed city
Adaptive re-use
Practice-based research
Prof. Dr. Bert Willems (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
199
Co-design
Interaction design methodology
Children
Jan Vanrie
to teach research skills
• Ain system
design education
Senior researcher
Vanrie, J., & Pint, K. (2013). A “filing
system” for teaching research skills
in interior architecture education.
2nd International Conference for
Design Education Researchers, Oslo,
Norway.
Vanrie, J., & Verfaillie, K. (2011).
On the depth reversibility of point-light
actions, Visual Cognition, 19, 11581190.
Petermans, A., Van Cleempoel,
K., Vanrie, J. (2011). Tacit knowledge in
interior architecture: interior architects
on the designer – paying client –
user client relationship. 4th World
Conference on Design Research
(IASDR2011), Delft, The Netherlands.
Quartier, K., Vanrie, J., & Van
Cleempoel, K. (2010). The mediating
role of consumers perception
of atmosphere on emotions and
behavior. A study to analyze the
impact of lighting in food retailing.
Design and Emotion, Chicago, USA.
Nuyts, E., & Vanrie, J. (2009).
Exploration of analysis methods
of experience maps: a case study
of children with and without visual
impairments. 1st International Visual
Methods Conference, Leeds, UK.
Experimental set-up in the Retail Lab
Exploring research-by-design
Griet Verbeeck
Senior researcher
Execution quality on construction sites
(foto ©Katleen Coenen, 2011)
balance of an elf house
• Heat
(foto ©Griet Verbeeck, 2012)
Zero Pentathlon – renovation for zero impact
(foto ©Steven Berghmans, Stijn Cornelissen,
Thomas Dreesen, Kasper Konings, Jente Luts,
2013)
Towards robust and reliable energy
performance of dwellings – construction site
detail (foto ©Geert Bauwens, 2012)
Detail of a visitors “experience map”
for a nature and science museum
Meex E., Verbeeck G. (2013).
Comparison of 2 sustainability
assessment tools on a passive
office in Flanders. SB13 Conference
Contribution of Sustainable Building
for EU 20-20-20 target, 30 October-1
November, Guimarães, Portugal.
Verbeeck G., Weytjens L.
(2013). Zero Pentathlon: a holistic
environmental design assignment.
ENHSA Conference, 3-5 October,
Naples, Italy.
Staepels L., Verbeeck G., Roels
S., Van Gelder L., Bauwens G. (2013).
Evaluation of indoor climate in low
energy houses. Symposium on
Simulation for Architecture and Urban
Design. 7-10 April, San Diego, USA.
Verbeeck G., Cornelis A. (2011).
Renovation versus demolition of old
dwellings. Comparative analysis
of costs, energy consumption and
environmental impact. PLEA 2011
International Conference on Passive
and Low Energy Architecture.
Architecture and Sustainable
Development, 13-15 July, Louvain-laNeuve, Belgium.
Verbeeck G., Hens H. (2010).
Life cycle inventory of buildings: a
calculation method. Buildings and
Environment 45(4), 964-967.
Verbeeck G., Hens H. (2007). Life
cycle optimization of extremely low
energy dwellings. Journal of Building
Physics, 31(2), 143-177.
Performance of a sustainable
neighbourhood – Dorpheide
(foto ©Britt Simons and Evelien Kumpen, 2011)
200
Research methodology
User-space interaction
Perception & cognition
Environmental psychology
Research education
201
Comfort
Design support
Empathy
Robustness
Sustainability
Lieve Weytjens
Phd researcher
Bert Willems
Senior researcher
Design support for energy efficiency and summer
comfort of dwellings in early design phases.
A framework for a design tool adapted to the architects
practice in flanders
Bessemans, A., & Willems, B. (2009,
february). The gap Between Science
and Typography. Conference about
Test Methods: Science and design for
language impairments, Jan van Eyck
Academie, Maastricht (NL).
Wuytens, K., & Willems, B.
(2009, June). Diversity in the design
processes of studio jewellers.
Experiential Learning, London (UK).
Wuytens, K., Kitsinis, K. &
Willems, B. (2010, March). DoDesign,
design tool in support of innovation
and education. CES Granta Design,
Cambridge (UK).
Bessemans, A., & Willems,
B. (2010, octobre). Typography for
children with a visual impairment.
Congres, An Exchange Forum on
Information Design for Visually
Impaired People, Vienna (A).
Wuytens, K., & Willems, B.
(2010, November). DoDesign: a
tool for creativity-based innovation.
International Conference on Design
Creativity, Kobe (Japan).
‘Fine Silver: Lectures on
Contemporary Metal’ (2010, may).
Symposium naar aanleiding van
het eredoctoraat uitgereikt aan
Michael Rowe door de UHasselt.
Presentations: Bert Willems, Wim Nys,
David Huycke, Anders Ljungberg,
Nedda El Asmar, Rembrandt Jordan,
Helena Schepens, Michael Rowe.
‘Beyond Art & design’ (2013,
march). Symposium/Tentoonstelling
‘Doctoraten in de Kunst’ (ism De
Mijlpaal). Presentations: Bert Willems,
Patrick Ceyssens, Geoffrey Brusatto,
Peter De Cupere, Hannah Joris, Karen
Wuytens, Ann Bessemans, David
Huycke, Willem Elias.
Screenshot of the prototype
(Source: K. Geyskens)
Beyond Art & Design (2013)
• Objectives for the design tool
of focus groups with architects:
• Results
composed image based on excerpts from
Available design parameters in the architectural
design process and the need for default values
participants’ drawings on data visualization,
showing output visualization in the 3D building
model
• Beyond Art & Design (2013)
of the prototype
• Screenshot
(Source: K. Geyskens)
Prof. Dr. Griet Verbeeck (UHasselt)
202
Energy efficiency
Summer comfort
Early design phase
Design tool
Architects
203
Research in the arts
Design methods
Cognitive science
Karen Wuytens
Phd researcher
Redefining design and the devolopment of a design model
for designers of jewellery & objects
of ‘Hamerprint’
• Sketch
in collaboration with David Huycke, 2012
design of ‘Girl with a pearl XXL’
• Computer
2012
Computer design of ‘Hamerprint’
in collaboration with David Huycke, 2012
with a pearl XXL’
• ‘Girl
2012
‘Hamerprint’
in collaboration with David Huycke, 2012
Prof. Dr. Bert Willems (MAD-faculty / UHasselt)
204
3D-printing
Objects & Jewellery
Design Model
205
Colofon
This is a publication of the Faculty of Architecture and Arts
(Hasselt University) ©2013
Editors
Cover Image
Graphic design
Printed by
Jan Vanrie & Bert Willems
Remco Roes
Geoffrey Brusatto (ww.brusatto.be)
Drukkerij Leën, Hasselt (B)
Design for Life
An engaging book contains ideas, reflections,
and visions for the future.
An engaging book is also an object
in itself - a designed object.
In the research groups ArcK and MAD-Research,
we experiment with the designed environment,
from architecture and interior architecture to
design and art. On the occasion of the inauguration
of the faculty of Architecture and Arts of Hasselt
University, we present this book, as a map of
present explorations and future trajectories.