Itinerant Office presents this week the fifth episode of the second season of "PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE: about being an architect yesterday, today and beyond". On May 27th, 29th and 30th each of the 3 interviews with Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem, co-founders of the Robbrecht en Daem architecten firm, were premiered.
On this occasion Gianpiero Venturini interviews the architects Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem with the aim of investigating their careers and knowing their opinion about a profession such as that of being an architect, always changing. In the end they try to inspire new generations. The interview is divided into three parts:

PAST questions the conditions that allowed them to embark on a path of success that led their firm to be among the most internationally recognized. The interviewees tell us what led them to study architecture, anecdotes and some of their first commissions.
 
Gianpiero Venturini: Why did you start this profession and which were the most important aspects that characterised that first part of the career?

Paul Robbrecht: “I discovered architecture in a very specific moment which was the incredible World Fair in Brussels in 1958, that I visited several times with my father. I was eight years old and I was amazed by the buildings that they built, not only the Atomium which is very famous and is still existing, but also pavilions like the Poème électronique by Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis. And especially the Scandinavia pavilions - very poor in their expression but very rich in their human feeling because of the natural materials they used. And later on, I was supported by my father to go into that direction. Because I was doubting a little bit about art, architecture but he sent me at a very young age to see the buildings of Le Corbusier”.

Hilde Daem:“It was a real man’s world. You were only with two or three girls among one hundred and twenty boys. You have now the “Me too” movement. In that time, you couldn’t say anything, you had better keep your mouth shut. It was really a very heavy life for women. And this was one thing my father always told me, «Architecture is not something for women». And I wanted to prove him the opposite. And now there are more than fifty percent women studying in architecture but I don’t know where they are, you don’t see them. They are always in offices, very rarely they have an office that is known under the name of a woman”.

PRESENT helps us understand how your study works and how it has grown over time through knowledge of the unique characteristics of your study. Through this interview we can get an overview of your practice and understand the reasons for your success.
 
GV: How would define your work today. Are there any key-words that describe your current approach to the practice? 

PR: “Community and even in the word «community» is the word «communication». These two things are now themes in our work. We were really reflecting on it, how it might be possible to not only produce housing but try to give spaces and areas where the communal feeling is really obvious. Even on higher parts of buildings, we are trying to suggest places where people not only stay in the house and look at the television but have chances to meet each other...” 

HD: “You can’t eliminate art from what we did in the past and what we are doing now, it’s always there. We don’t add art after the project, it’s always there in the beginning (…) And working with art was really in our DNA it’s never far away. We always try to work for cultural commissions so it's much more easy to bring art in it".

FUTURE seeks to deliberate on issues of today and tomorrow. Architects address a number of key concepts that represent their approach, while anticipating future trends in architecture. The interview closes with advice given to new generations of architects and students.
 
GV: What’s your advice for the younger generation of architects?

PR: “I would say to young architects: be surprised, be open, look at things that you don't know and be open to expressions in art. You have to absorb a lot of things and also look into yourself and try to synthesise this world of impressions you have and be very open to that and you will possibly find a line where you can go on”.

HD: “ When I think about architecture now and how it’s an important topic for politics, then I would say, to all architects, but also to the user and especially to the politicians: think long-term and not very short-term. I'm very pessimistic about the way it's going now. The heating of the earth, what I believe is a reality (…) If there’s one topic I must choose: stay humble in what you are thinking and think in the longterm”.
PAST

PRESENT

FUTURE

More information

Robbrecht en Daem architecten, founded in 1975 by Paul Robbrecht (1950) and Hilde Daem (1950), has developed a set of mature works that can be maintained on the international scene. The broad international portfolio comprises an impressive number of architecture and infrastructure projects, interiors and landscapes. The constant quality of the realizations is always the result of a precise architectural vision that has characterized the practice from the beginning and that to this day constitutes the basis of a meticulous approach to the project.

The founding duo was behind some highly discussed exhibition scenery and in 1992 curator Jan Hoet asked him to design the pavilions for the international art exhibition Documenta IX in Kassel (1992). The cultural commissions that the company carried out then and later are surprising: the Concertgebouw Brugge (2002), the extension of the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (2003), the chamber music hall in Gaasbeek (2004) and the permanent exhibition pavilion "Het Huis" at the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp (2012). Gradually, the studio became known for its architecture that offers the arts a home.

In 2002 Johannes Robbrecht (1977) joined the Robbrecht team at Daem architecten. In 2012 he became a partner. In 2016, more than 40 people work on a growing portfolio of commissions and large-scale infrastructure projects, often in urban environments with complex programs and instructions, as well as in client structures and partnerships. Large collective housing estates in the city centre or suburbs (Academiestraat in Ghent, 2016) alternate with office and care infrastructure (a newly built hospital in Antwerp, 2016). The company has carried out several projects in the public space: Leopold De Wael Square in Antwerp (2001), Rubens Square in Knokke (2004), Grote Markt in Lier (2013) and the redesign of the city centre of Deinze and the banks of the river Leie (2012). Robbrecht en Daem architecten has recently realised several archive buildings in Belgium and abroad: Sint-Felixpakhuis in Antwerp (2006), the municipal archives of Bordeaux (2015), the state archives of Ghent (2014) and a new underground depot in the Boekentoren complex (2014), also in Ghent.

The team knows how to combine the dynamism and complexity typical of this type of commission with the spirit of the design practice of the founding duo: to work consistently in an architecture that is presented discreetly and modestly. Themes from the early years of the company, such as familiarity and intimacy, the sculptural effect of daylight and the framing of perspectives, take on a new meaning in today's large commissions. Regardless of scale, typology or function, the team designs each project in the same meticulous manner and turns the building into "an unforgettable place". This makes Robbrecht's work at Daem architecten timeless, different and lasting.

The reconversion and restoration projects that the firm has carried out in recent decades are the clearest illustrations of dialoguing architecture. The working method is always the same: 'change a lot so as not to change anything'. In particular, the architects of Robbrecht in Daem have followed this vision in their approach to certain buildings of great modernist masters, such as Victor Horta (Brussels Centre of Fine Arts, 2016), Marcel Breuer (De Bijenkorf, Amsterdam, 2013), Boris Iofan (Udarnik Cinema, Moscow, 2014), Charles Harrison Townsend (Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2009) and Henry van de Velde (Boekentoren, Ghent, 2014; Villa Landing, Astene, 2015). In 2013, Robbrecht en Daem architecten, following his own approach, but with the necessary discretion, produced a full-scale model of a project not executed by Mies van der Rohe: a golf club in the German city of Krefeld.

Robbrecht's work in Daem architecten has been published widely and internationally (A+U, Abitare, Bauwelt, Detail) and is the subject of monographic publications (Works in Architecture, 1998; Pacing Through Architecture, 2009; 2G n°5, 2010; An Architectural Anthology, 2017). In 2010, Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem were named International Fellow of the Royal Academy of British Architecture (RIBA). In 2013, together with Marie-José Van Hee architecten, Robbrecht en Daem architecten received the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Prize for the flagship project of the City of Ghent Pavilion (2012).
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Published on: May 30, 2019
Cite: "A conversation with Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem. "PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE"" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-conversation-paul-robbrecht-and-hilde-daem-past-present-future> ISSN 1139-6415
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