• 150
        • Other Modernities
          Observations about a North-West-European Architecture

        Abstract

        Belgian mid-twentieth century architecture is unsettling. In the post-war years large infrastructural projects descended upon existing cities, ripping apart historic ensembles and neighbourhoods – this, ironically, in a country that had experienced traumatic destruction in 1914–1918, but the physical fabric of which had been left relatively unscathed by the Second World War. After 1945, modernity came in the form of the engineers who were responsible for the new network of roads, tunnels and viaducts crushing through the city. Above the tunnels and metros and along the new inner city motorways, new buildings emerged that featured curtain walls and other ‘modernist’ elements that, however, remain thumbnails attached to buildings that seem otherwise fairly untouched by modern principles. The article examines the conditions under which architecture developed in the course of the twentieth century and a range of types of modernity (which often are reactions to modernisation) that seem particular to Belgium: unsolicited, attenuated, crafted, questioned. The modern architecture that emerged in twentieth-century Belgium is different from other modern architec- tures in North-West Europe in its absence of strident rhetoric. It wishes to fit in, in a society as well as in a city, and it does so with proficiency, artistic and artisanal spirit.



          1. 150
          2. 151
          1. 152
          2. 153
          1. 154
          2. 155
          1. 156
          2. 157
          1. 158
          2. 159
          1. 160
          2. 161
        Citation
        Grafe, C. (2014). Other Modernities. Observations about a North-West-European Architecture. Codes and Continuities, OASE, (92), 150–155. Retrieved from https://www.oasejournal.nl/en/Issues/92/OtherModernities

        Download PDF (559 KB)

          1. 150
          2. 151
          1. 152
          2. 153
          1. 154
          2. 155
          1. 156
          2. 157
          1. 158
          2. 159
          1. 160
          2. 161
    1. 21/11/2023
      call for conversations OASE 118

      Rationalism Revisited

      This Call is written by Justin Agyin, Bart Decroos, Christoph Grafe. The deadline is 17 December 2023.

      Read more

    2. 11/11/2023
      call for abstracts OASE 119
      1. Review of Jean-Louis de Cordemoy's Nouveau traité de toute l'architecture in Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences & des beaux-arts, September 1706

      Book Reviews
      From Words to Buildings
      In this issue of OASE, the history of the architectural book review is outlined through case studies. This Call is written by Christophe Van Gerrewey and Hans Teerds. The deadline is 20 December 2023.

      Read more

    3. 06/03/2023
      BK Talks on 16 March 2023 about 'Design with Soil: Urbanizing the living surface'

      On 16 March 2023 the TU Delft will host a debate inspired by OASE 110.

      Read more

    4. 21/02/2023
      Call for Abstracts OASE 117. Village Variations

      Read more

    5. 31/01/2023
      Now available: OASE 113. Authorship

      What does the author’s ‘owning’ of a project mean? And does this sense of ownership still prevail in contemporary architecture culture? Other more open forms of cooperation and co-creation are emerging alongside the concept of individual singular authorship.

      Read more

    6. 02/12/2022
      Presentation OASE 112 on 8 December 2022 in Rotterdam, NL

      Read more

    7. 24/11/2022
      Call for Abstracts OASE 116
      1. Carmen Portinho in front of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (source: Wikimedia Commons)

      ‘The Architect as Public Instellectual’
      Deadline: 23-12-2022

      Read more

    8. 15/10/2022
      Now available: OASE 112. Ecology & Aesthetics

      Through a series of concrete projects, the contributions in this issue explore the field of tension between architectural aesthetics and issues of energy, technology and materiality. Ecological practices in architecture must not only be effective in providing solutions, but inevitably raise questions of beauty, affection and perception as well.

      Read more

    9. 23/05/2022
      Call for Abstracts OASE #115. Interferences: Migrating Practices in Europe

      Call for Abstracts OASE #115 about “Interferences: Migrating Practices in Europe”, written by Justin Agyin, Kornelia Dimitrova, Christoph Grafe and Bernard Colenbrander. Deadline is June 19, 2022. Read the full text of the OASE #115 Call for Abstracts in the PDF.

      Read more

    10. 20/05/2022
      Now available: OASE 111. Staging the Museum

      Museums stage public encounters between visitors, objects and stories. This is not limited to a tour through the exhibition spaces, it starts already with monumental or ‘tresholdless’ entrances.

      Read more

    11. More news …