A WEAVING GENERATION
DAM Frankfurt, 2016 & MUHKA, 2017

The Prelude was designed as a Wunderkammer describing the practices of young rising offices in the Netherlands and Flanders. While different in their architectural background, these offices share similarities in their approaches towards architecture.

In the Netherlands, this group grew out of the wake of the economic crisis, a specific condition that prompted an abrupt re-evaluation of the status quo. The architecture before had been too isolated, fragmented, and much too defined by its own internal logic. In Flanders, young architects found themselves grappling with the continuation of an older cultural tradition, trying to make sense of the fragmented urban condition in Belgium.

These young offices aimed to regain a wider perspective by re-evaluating the overall history through association: the notion of typology, the specifics of context, the tradition of craft and the richness of art. Rather than creating something original in isolation, they sought to identify existing common threads and weave them together. The design then lies in enriching the existing fabric; building upon anecdotes from history, incident and context. The objects exhibited were presented as fragments of this generation; objects of thought and objects of realisation. Viewed together through the perspective of the visitor, their interrelationships become evident.

CURATORS: Jantje Engels, Marius Grootveld, Ghent
SCENOGRAPHY: Veldwerk Architecten, Ghent
PHOTOGRAPHY: OTTO/KAAN, Amsterdam (mosaics), Michiel de Cleene, Ghent (foto essay), Marius Grootveld, Ghent (scenography)
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Andreas Depauw, Antwerp
PRODUCTION: Vlaams Architectuurinstituut (VAi) icw. Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM)
PRODUCTION SCENOGRAPHY: Oliver Taschke Schreinermeister, Offenbach

CONTRIBUTORS: AE architecten, Ard de Vries Architecten, BLAF Architecten, BureauVanEig, Dhooge & Meganck, Eagles of Architecture, GAFPA, Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven Architecten, Haerynck Vanmeirhaeghe architecten, Korth Tielens Architecten, La-Di-Da, Lilith Ronner van Hooijdonk, Barend Koolhaas, MONADNOCK, murmuur architecten, Open Architecture Office, Olivier Goethals, ONO architectuur, Perneel Osten Architecten, RAAMWERK, Sander Rutgers & Marieke Rombout, Studio Anne Dessing, studio Donna van Milligen Bielke, NAUTA architecture & research, Studio Thys Vermeulen, Tim Peeters Architecten, TRANS, Unknown Architects, Veldwerk Architecten, Werkstatt, Wim Goes Architectuur

CLIENT: Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi)
YEAR: 2016, 2017
LOCATION: DAM Frankfurt, MUHKA Antwerp
STATUS: Realised

VELDWERK TEAM: Jantje Engels, Marius Grootveld

Voices on the Current, a conversation between a generation of weaving architects in the Netherlands, Germany and Flanders