Entrer: Five architectures in Belgium News from the School of Art, Architecture and Design

The Cass hosts an immersive exhibition exploring the diversity of Belgian architecture.

The Wallonie-Bruxelles Architectures initiative returns to The Cass this September for the second exhibition in its series on Belgian architecture. 'Entrer: Five architectures in Belgium' presents five projects that reflect the diversity of Wallonia and Brussels’ architecture using a combination of sound and visual installations.

The recent outstanding Belgian projects on display include a project by MSA, winners of Emerging Architect in the 2017 Mies van der Rohe Awards, the European Prize for contemporary architecture. ADEPS Sports Centre by Baukunst, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Mies Awards, will also be on display.

The exhibition explores the challenges inherent in exhibiting architectural projects remotely. Its curator, art historian and architect Audrey Contesse invited photographer Maxime Delvaux and sound designer Christophe Rault to research and interpret each of the five projects and their analyses are presented in the form of a series of unsynchronised videos and soundtracks. This combination of soundscape and imagery is offset by a collection of items selected by Contesse both from on site and from the architects’ practices, to highlight both the materiality and pertinence of each project.

Visitors are invited to go beyond the buildings’ image and explore each project through the three approaches, using their combined senses to mentally reconstruct the spatiality of each project. A private view of the exhibition will take place on 27 September at 4.30pm with the curators and architects present. Also as part of the exhibition, a public round table with the five exhibited offices: Baukunst, Baumans-Deffet, L’Escaut, MSA and Vers. A, will take place on September 27th at 6.30pm, moderated by William Mann of architectural practice Witherford Watson Mann. The theme will be 'Five architectures in Belgium: process and materiality'.

Entrer: is the second exhibition in wider cultural programme at The Cass entitled ‘What About Belgian Architecture?’. In April of this year The Cass hosted Inventaires #2, an exhibition of comics and illustrative ephemera depicting Belgium architecture. The exhibition presented an up-to- date survey on architectural developments within Wallonia and Brussels by partnering illustration with architecture. The season aims to promote Wallonia-Brussels architecture and involves a series of lectures and exhibitions throughout 2017.

Image: Entrer by Vinciane Verguethen