It is with great sorrow that we share with you the devastating news of Ola-Dele Kuku’s sudden passing on the 11th of October 2021.
We, his family, friends and colleagues, plan on turning this website into a virtual foundation in his honour.
We invite your comments, ideas, contributions and donations to this cause, so that we give those interested in honoring and preserving Ola-Dele’s legacy a chance to take part in this process.
Re-ACT by design is the theme of an annual series of international workshop weeks for master students product development, architecture, interior architecture, heritage studies, and urbanism and spatial planning of the Faculty of Design Sciences at the University of Antwerp and for students of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of the AP University College.
The aim of the international workshop week is to explore the power and capacity of design to tackle those lines of fracture and socially engage by design. Beyond re-search by design, students and tutors re-act by design.
How can design education not only address students, but also address those lines of fracture, and induce debates, provoke questions, and set an agenda?
The International Design Workshop week is open to radical pedagogical experiences, which open the eyes, change sides and widen thinking. It stimulates crossing disciplinary boundaries. The week is jointly curated by a team of students and faculty. It provides a forum for international exchange; simultaneously, it is an informal platform for discussing design education and its agency. The 2021 edition investigates the potentials of commons.
Architect-artist Ola-Dele Kuku was invited to lead a workshop on
Following this one week workshop, investigating ‘Humour’ (which is perhaps the most neglected of the senses) as a design application that focuses on socio-cultural constraints, communication and behavioural response for an urban intervention, the involved students presented this short film:
‘The society is a system – a social system and we learn from the study of physics that disorder in a system always increases with time. This is evident today in our cultural evolution that reflects the current persisting global phenomenon of socio-cultural conflicts, which I have described as the contemporary conflict culture. Within the realm of how things relate, conflict emerges as a significant catalyst that usually instigates the dynamics of change and reform, rather than the means to stability or reunion. Therefore, conflicts can be manifested as a familiar interdependent relationship involving constraints relative obligations or the balance between wishes and fulfilments. Hence, the affiliation to the built environment by the individual is manifested by means of subjective analytic translation of experiences, actions and endeavour which in turn reveals a behavioural response and attitude towards that environment’.
This cultural transformation is being sustained by an amazing development in technology that has been produced due to the conflict phenomenon (particularly in armed conflict) via design application, applied architecture and applied social engineering. It is a projection of the new application era where design thinking today has become a prominent application rather than a product!
The workshop exercise will use this platform to investigate ‘Humour’ (which is perhaps the most neglected of the senses) as a design application that focuses on socio-cultural constraints, communication and behavioural response for an urban intervention – with reference to divisions in society and diversity within the community. The intervention will be based on use of words, symbols, sound as media that appeal to the senses and tools for generating a collective representation.
we are glad to invite you to our next event framed in our current exhibition «Icons of Domestic Rituals» By the architect-artists Ola-Dele Kuku, in which we have the great honor of having six personalities from the field of art, architecture, philosophy and letters. We want to thank all of them for the kindness and valuable time that they have given us to make this unique session a stimulating and rewarding experience.
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Agenda:
ICONS OF DOMESTIC RITUALS (part 1)
Ola-Dele Kuku in “conversation” with special guest contributor:
Casimir De Dalmau (artist) @kasimirdedalmau
Thursday 22 October 2020 from 18:00h – 19:00h
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ICONS OF DOMESTIC RITUALS (part 2)
Colloquium with our distinguished guests:
Bertrand Estrangin (gallerist / explorer / art collector) Bruno Erpicum (architect)
Ann Van Sevenant (philosopher)
Ola-Dele Kuku (architect / artist)
Leonor Hubaut (moderator / EU journalist)
Thursday 22 October 2020 from 19:00h – 22:00h
(The colloquium will commence at 19:00h)
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NooN ConsultinG Art
Chaussée de Louvain 803, Evere
Please book your visit by DM or
hello@noonconsulting.art or by telephone (0471 690 393)
“Icons of Domestic Rituals”
(the Opera Domestica doctrine)
by
Ola-Dele Kuku (architect – artist)
Opera Domestica doctrine is an investigation into the Dwelling Space which is composed of rooms or partitions where particular objects represent Specific Routine Actions referred to as the Domestic Rituals performed repetitively by an individual or a group within that confined environment.
The provision for new needs and the accommodation of new tendencies within our surrounding are now prominent issues of attention in our contemporary society forged by conflict and social unrest.
Curated by Désirée Meza-Mesia & Ola-Dele Kuku
Opening
Thursday 17 September 2020 and Friday 18 September
from 18:00h – 22:00h
Exhibition from 17 September – until 30 October 2020
I am very pleased to invite you to the opening of our summer Exhibition Programme.
04 June – 05 August 2020
There are two reasons for this very special occasion:
1. We start with the first exhibition within the framework of the ‘Social Responsibility Programme’ #helptohelp ART.
This program works in favour of the prospect of overcoming the negative effects of covid -19 with the support for Direct Palliative, Prevention, Training Actions and Scientific Research carried out by the Red Cross and L’Ilot in Belgium, MSF (Doctors Without Borders) Italy, BSF (firefighters without borders), Caritas and CSIC in Spain.
2. This will be our second implementation of solidarity actions by talented artist that offer their relentless efforts and talent for a good cause and social contribution.
Carla Querejeta Roca
Ola-Dele Kuku
Ruggiero Maria Rutigliano
at
NooN ConsultinG Art
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#Exhibitions
RUGGIERO MARIA RUTIGLIANO
‘One Moment Shapes 2’
(Unblocking) #helptohelp exhibition 04 June – 05 August 2020
———————————————————————— OLA-DELE KUKU
‘Something Has To Give!’
(Agenda Setting installation 2020) #helptohelp exhibition 04 June – 05 August 2020
———————————————————————— CARLA QUEREJETA ROCA
‘Desinences’ solo exhibition 04 June – 05 July 2020
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#Vernissage
From 04 – 07 June 2020
04 June 18:00 – 20:00
05 June 18:00 – 20:00
06 June (at HAM) 14:00 – 16:002
07 June (at HAM) 14:00 -15:00
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In order to respect the barrier gestures and guarantee the best sanitary conditions, we spread out the opening for four days. We shall be grateful if you could confirm your participation by email:
Please specifying the date and time that you have chosen. ————————————————————————- The gallery has an outdoor court where it is possible to wait if needed. Each visit group thus formed may not exceed 10 people. ————————————————————————-
We shall be looking forward to seeing you soon! Best wishes,
Conflict Culture -The design era of ‘Need’ – rather than ‘Want’
a lecture by Ola-Dele Kuku
…With reference to wars, displacements and natural disasters, boundaries are constantly shifting and new territories are being created. These new territories have become the fundamental platforms for innovative solutions and interventions that require a continuous systematic approach…
“Uptown Art & Design 2019 – The Brussels Limited Edition” will take place from 12/09 to 28/09/2019. Uptown Design evolves again and opens to contemporary art. Design and art creations will be exhibited now in the Uptown. Since its creation, this tour of exhibitions remains devoted to the discovery of Belgian and international design but adds a new artistic value to the course.
Ola-Dele Kuku’s work is presented at
Marie’s Corner Concept Store
Rue de Namur, 39 – 1000 Brussels
Opening night : Wednesday 11.09.2019 from 6.30pm to 10pm
THE DAY OF THE OFFICIAL PUBLIC REOPENING OF THE AFRICAMUSEUM
ON SUNDAY 9 DECEMBER, FROM 12-6PM
Lise Coirier & Gian Giuseppe Simeone are very pleased to welcome you in their private home and share this unique event of the reopening of the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren coupled to TLmag Africa(s), 304 pages dedicated to this continent.
TLmag 29 SS issue on Afriques /Africas (FR/EN), 320 pages & drawing, 2018 On the cover: Aimé Mpane, Congo Nouveau Souffle, erected in the rotunda of the AfricaMuseum
Nigerian born, Brussels based architect Ola-Dele Kuku has translated his architecture training into a conceptual art practice. His ongoing projects stem from deep philosophical inquiries into the current state of culture, identity, and geography. Click here to read the full interview by Adrian Madlener.
A recent interview of Ola-Dele Kuku, “Architecture as Critique” was published in TLmagazine issue 29. You can read it on TLmagazine’s website by clicking on the image below.
A collective exhibition curated by Roel Rijssenbeek & Inge Vranken
This exhibition includes objects in a specific niche in a sector as wide as design, that of ‘collectible design’ or ‘design art’, situated in the grey zone between art and design. Limited series and unique pieces, mainly or exclusively hand-made, form the core of this exhibition, in which unconventional and often monumental form takes precedence over functionality.
This exhibition highlights the importance of the questions that Belgian designers have around the choice of form and function in designs. The tension between these two fundamental aspects of design was a key element in the selection of the items for the show. This tension also comes up in the research into and experiments in the techniques and materials used. The result is always a very personal design language that invite interaction. The objects may surprise, make us think about, move us, disturb or mislead, or even amuse.
Between Art & Design, The Belgian scene offers us an ensemble that reflects the wealth and particularly the diversity of contemporary Belgian design. In this selection, the most striking aspect is the great artistic diversity that is also a strong characteristic of the world of visual arts in Belgium. The designers are acting as very independent and individual and they have developed their own ideas about the day-to-day environment and the interiorobject.
Belgian designers remain, with a few exceptions, understated; their work is rarely obtrusive but truly characterised by a feeling for aesthetics, volume and proportion. And even that is their strength.
Curated by Roel Rijssenbeek & Inge Vranken
At the occasion of Brussels Design September 2018
The designers :
Alain Berteau, Anne Marie Laureys, Ben Storms, Bram Boo, Brut Collective, Casimir, Charles Kaisin, Damien Gernay, Danny Venlet, De Vylder Vinck & Taillieu, Erwin De Muer, Jean-François D’Or, Julien Carretero, Kaspar Hamacher, Laend, Lionel Jadot, Maarten De Ceulaer, Marie-José Van Hee, Muller Van Severen, Octave Vandeweghe, Ola-Dele Kuku, Pierric De Coster, Piet Stockmans, Raphael Charles, Sep Verboom, atelier lachaert dhanis, Studio Job, Sylvain Willenz, MdSt, Unfold, Vincent Van Duysen, Vladimir Slavov, Hans Weyers, Xavier Lust.
This symposium, proposed by architect Ola-Dele Kuku, addresses African urban space as a place for progressive socio-cultural development, conflict prevention, and post-conflict rehabilitation. It is held under the patronage of the Embassy of Sierra Leone in Belgium and in the presence of H.E Mr Ibrahim Sorie (Ambassador) and the Minister Counselor Mrs Florence N. Bangalie .
The discussion will investigate modern alternatives in the integration of creative arts and culture as tools to formulate, regenerate and activate a synthesis for a progressive socio-cultural development amidst the destruction and devastation of the environment, which are the prominent aftermath in a conflict zones.
The case of Sierra Leone is addressed. Freetown, the capital city would require the establishment of major cultural events or the accommodation of expressive creativity in order to introduce a social consciousness of geography and place with reference to years of conflict. This will also assist in the creation of different ancillary industries, structures and several economic activities in response to the possibilities associated with the proposed events.
Guest participants:
Melbourne Garber, Expert in Monuments and Relics of Sierra Leone, Trenton NJ, (USA)
Topics addressed: • Why is social conflict a major aspect of contemporary culture, and what are the necessary means to conflict prevention and progressive development? • Is conflict – as the main organizational principle behind the way things are ordered -necessarily a negative, destabilizing factor, or on the contrary can we manage and even benefit from it? • What does it take to create an alternative approach within the routine of responding to a conflict? • How can you translate the very complex dimensions of extreme human conditions in conflict and disasters zones to something someone can relate to within their own private space? • Curating the community and environment has always been an essential property of social order and coordination which relates to people-environment interrelationship and identity. This is an essential responsibility that defines curating as a Social Science. How can ‘Applied Architecture’, ‘Creative Art’ and ‘Design Application’ in post-conflict rehabilitation encourage creative synthesis for innovative thinking for new products and new spatial morphology?
Ola Dele Kuku. Photo – Mauro Bonini
Ola-Dele Kuku is the founder of L-ARN (Laboratory for Academic Research Network). He has lectured at numerous international conferences and coordinated various academic workshops on the application of architecture, art, and design for progressive socio-cultural development. He has been a tutor / guest tutor at several architecture institutions. He has long studied and taught the phenomenon of conflict, and has conducted extensive research in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In 2002 he organized a seminar in Lagos Nigeria, ‘Culture and the Contemporary African City’ which examined the impact of progressive cultural development on social structure, social distribution density, social economy and cultural identity. L-ARN now proposes the ‘Education Development Programme’ and the ‘Event Based Development Process’ as a means to a ‘Progressive Socio-Cultural Development’, ‘Conflict Prevention’, and ‘Post-Conflict Rehabilitation’.
BOZAR CENTRE FOR FINE ARTS – Brussels
Production: Africa Desk Presentation: AFROPOLITAN Partner: L-ARN
The Old Fourah Bay College building, Freetown (photo Ola-Dele Kuku 2002 ‘Cultural Mapping’ project)
‘Agenda Setting’ – Afrika is geen land! (neon series) – 2015 courtesy ola-dele kuku projects.The Cotton Tree – Freetown – Sierra-Leone
The ‘Old Fourah Bay College’ Building, Freetown, Sierra Leone. (First University in West Africa, founded in 1827). The building was destroyed by fire in 1999. Photo: Ola-Dele Kuku copyright 2002 ‘Cultural Mapping Project’ (L-ARN initiative)
Ola-Dele Kuku was interviewed by Alice Mestriner during the workshop “A Continuous State of Time” held at the National Nigerian Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – Venice 2016.
Held on the 7th of September 2016, ‘A Continuous State Of Time‘ is an interactive programme of lectures, debates and workshops on the contemporary phenomenon of conflict in architecture and art, in times of socio-cultural transformation. As an integral component of the formation and evolution of a social system, conflict emerges as a significant mechanism that instigates change rather than unanimity. This phenomenon materializes in the form of various vital events such as wars, natural disasters, emigrations, population displacements, birth, death, and choice. These events ultimately become the stimuli and variants in the transformation of societies.
When I first saw one of Ola-Dele Kuku’s furniture pieces, I was immediately captured. This piece was exhibited in the Design Museum Ghent.
Actually, ‘furniture’ is a misleading label. The objects he creates certainly present themselves as furniture, but they do not limit themselves to mere functionality. All his creations boast an unusual playfulness, as if they are made solely for the homo ludens.Last week Ola-Dele showed me his older work Teatro del’Archivio in the Brussels gallery of Philippe Laeremans.
This is a piece of furniture that has the presence of a sculpture, a monumental work, while at the same time it seems like a big toy. Like a little boy with shining eyes one wants to try everything: rotate the big cylinder, the inner cylinder, open every door, open every drawer and search for hidden places.It functions1 in the first place as a secretaire. A place to write your autobiography, or love letters, or an essay on the necessity of a revival of craftsmanship. In the drawers your pens and pencils and other bric à brac will find a place to rest. Letters and diaries and dreams will nestle in every nook. Books are hidden, but very near, and looking for them in the pigeon holes is a pleasure on its own.
The Teatro del’Archivio seems to me a modern version of the study of Saint Jerome, like in the painting of Antonello da Messina. I can imagine it in a spacious house where it would create a small and inviting island. It would invite you to come and sit and read or dream, write a poem, study philosophy.
When I first saw one of Ola-Dele Kuku’s furniture pieces, I was immediately captured. This piece was exhibited in the Design Museum Ghent.
Actually, ‘furniture’ is a misleading label. The objects he creates certainly present themselves as furniture, but they do not limit themselves to mere functionality. All his creations boast an unusual playfulness, as if they are made solely for the homo ludens.Last week Ola-Dele showed me his older work Teatro del’Archivio in the Brussels gallery of Philippe Laeremans.
This is a piece of furniture that has the presence of a sculpture, a monumental work, while at the same time it seems like a big toy. Like a little boy with shining eyes one wants to try everything: rotate the big cylinder, the inner cylinder, open every door, open every drawer and search for hidden places.
Conflict is one of the recurrent themes in the work of Ola-Dele Kuku. The architect-artist sees conflict as one of the driving mechanisms in our world, and as a tool to set change in motion. Conflict has played a crucial role since the dawn of creation, just think of the stories of the Big Bang and the paradise of Adam and Eve.
According to Ola-Dele Kuku our world has reached a turning point. The existing hierarchy is at its zenith and is therefore about to fall. We have lost our faith in God, we no longer fear him. Even morality, terms like good and bad and our complete image of society must be revised. Because morality changes depending on the side you are on. And although social media sometimes give the impression that our world is just a village, we are still increasingly concerned with what is happening outside our own front door.
2013-ConflictDesign catalogus_Conflict Culture.compressedView PDF
How our world will evolve is still unclear, but there is no doubt that conflict stimulates change. It stands the existing order on its head and inspires innovation. Therefore, according to Kuku, we must learn to use conflict as a tool and learn how to manage it so that a new order can establish itself in nature and in politics.
With Agenda Setting III (the running mean) Kuku presents an installation that consists of open books in different languages. The words written in them refer to contradictions in our knowledge, methods of interpretation and belief, to causes of conflict. The words and texts form, as it were, a sort of pixels of the bigger picture. By not presenting any images Kuku wishes to allow the onlooker the freedom to connect his own visual connotations with the words and reverses the usual process of interpretation of an image. Agenda Setting III (the running mean) thus provides the onlooker with an alternative window on the world.
Conflict & Design– the 7th edition of the Design Triennial in Flanders – shows how designers approach conflict situations and the impact their designs can have within our society.
The exhibition provides food for thought about how, in the (near) future, we will be obliged to interact with each other and manage our natural resources in fundamentally different ways.
AGENDA SETTING III – the running mean
Ola-Dele Kuku’s work for this Triennial will be exhibited in the ‘Conflict&Conflict’ section.
Conflict & Conflict gaat over design op het niveau van de ontwrichte samenleving, met andere woorden over conflicten met een grote C. Hoe ga je als designer aan de slag binnen contexten waar genormaliseerde maatschappelijke regels niet meer gelden, zoals in gevangenissen, of in gebieden zoals Palestina, of in de favelas van Brazilië?
Wat wordt er van een ontwerper verwacht wanneer hij of zij geconfronteerd wordt met oorlogssituaties of natuurrampen? Op welke manier kan design tegemoet komen aan specifieke noden en behoeftes? Hoe kan design worden ingezet als katalysator voor het creëren van orde en harmonie in onze samenleving?
Het laatste project dat we op deze Triënnale presenteren gaat over de dood, het ultieme conflict. Hier ligt de focus op de voortdurende strijd van de mens om de dood voor zich uit te schuiven.
Ludwig Trossaert is proud to present the new solo show “The Saga Continues”
in GALERIE LUDWIG TROSSAERT
with recent work of Ola-Dele Kuku (Lagos – Los Angeles – Brussels).
We are pleased to invite you to the private view of this exhibition, which will be held in the gallery
on Friday October 4th at 7 pm.
The artist will be present and he will be introduced by
Kurt VAN BELLEGHEM
(Curator of 7th Triennial for Design in Flanders 2013)
This exhibition runs until October 26th from 2 pm till 6 pm (closed on public holidays).
We hope to have the pleasure of your company.
________
From the press :
In the series Aftermath you can feel the intensity of the mass. It shows a certain pressure, but the images remain consistent as a collection. It brings about associations of the roofs of a township or favella, but also the world view suggested in Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (2010) comes to mind: we all want (demand) our own space, preferably as spacious as possible, in which we are lord and master and do not need to consider our fellows. The many layers of the drawing show us the palimpsest of the landscape: when the original text has ceased to be of any value, a used parchment may serve a new handwriting over and over. As each layer leaves its track in the vellum, a landscape shows the tracks of its long-gone occupants. In his drawings or ‘built images’ Ola-Dele Kuku adds layer upon layer: sometimes the traces of the first layer remain visible through the next. In other instances the readability is reduced, the story is not to be deciphered. This interpretation of the works requires a bird’s eye view, the perspective of our imagination. But you could just as well read the works in a vertical direction, in the perspective of our sensory perception, as a structure or a city stuffed with skyscrapers. Then they evoke a much more familiar (to us) Western way of life. A way of life we accredit a positive value: urban, social, a network. It is a viable society, or the silence before the storm…
For the 2013 Edition of PAD Paris Art + Design, Galerie Flak is pleased to present contemporary design furniture by Nigerian architect and artist Ola-Dele KUKU along with a selection of ancient fine art from Africa, Ocenia and North America.
Galerie Flak, established in 1990, is located 8 Rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris 6th arrondissement. Galerie Flak Art Tribal specialises in ancient tribal art from Africa, Oceania & North America as well as contemporary design. We pride ourselves in dealing in museum quality pieces with prestigious provenances. The gallery closely works with the major ethnography museums around the world (Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Rietberg Museum in Zurich, museums in Tahiti, Taiwan, Jerusalem, etc.). Julien Flak is a certified expert of the C.E.C.O.A. (The European Chamber Of Expert-Advisors In Fine Art).
PAD, pioneering event for Art and Design aficionados and collectors, has been reinventing for the past 17 years the Cabinet d’Amateur and the notion of eclecticism, anticipating the esthetic aspirations of its time.
Esplanade des Feuillants, Entrance 234 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris Métro : Tuileries
The 7th Triennial for Design in Flanders 2013 is an investigation into the social relevance of design and the role and responsibility of designers in our society.
This Triennial is a forum for designers who wish to contribute to this public debate. Their work can be considered as essential as we are forced to live and act differently and to change our attitudes towards our natural resources.
Conflict is a starting point for designers to think about our society, to create content and significance within a design process and to produce sustainable and economically viable products.
Design application
in post-conflict rehabilitation
WORKSHOP 3 : workshop team : Ola-Dele Kuku, Martine De Maeseneer, Gideon Boie.
This workshop explores the dynamics of conflict and addresses the following questions: How can we define a conflict zone within a social structure? Is the conflict mechanism an integrated component of the structure of society? Can conflict be used to instigate or activate a progressive tendency? Destruction and devastation of the environment are the prominent aftermath in a conflict zones. How can design application in post-conflict rehabilitation encourage creative synthesis for innovative thinking for new design products and new spatial morphology?
‘The conflict culture’
As an integral component of the formation and evolution of a social system, conflict emerges as a significant mechanism that instigates change rather than unanimity. This phenomenon materializes in the form of various ‘vital events’ such as wars, natural disasters, emigrations, population displacements, birth, death, and choice. These events ultimately become the stimulators and variants in the transformation of societies.
The constitution and composition of a social system involve conflict as a process of modification towards a different future of experience. The evolution in contemporary culture is predominantly forged by conflict or ‘vital events’ which are instigating new conditions of adaptations and developments.
Understanding the conflict phenomenon as a catalyst of socio-cultural evolution, reveals that the notion is a familiar stimulant for improvement and progressive tendency. Therefore the accommodation of conflicts is a prominent objective within all aspects of social planning and intervention. This requires the ability to anticipate future events, the possibility of analysing and evaluating solutions, and the capacity for innovative thinking to derive satisfactory solutions.
With reference to wars, displacements and natural disasters, boundaries are constantly shifting and new territories are being created which underlines the discontinuity in development, function, and a non-sustainable administration. The consequential process of transition emphasizes new demographic patterns and controlling factors of disproportional concentration of population in specific areas.
These new territories have become the fundamental platforms for innovative solutions and interventions that require a continuous systematic approach.
What can you expect?
The 7th Triennial Design in Flanders in 2013 takes place in C-Mine Genk, opens on December, 14, 2013 and runs until March, 2, 2014. The partners in this project are Design Flanders, C-Mine Genk and Design Hub Limburg.
Kurt Vanbelleghem is Curator of the 7th Triennial Design in Flanders 2013
Ola-Dele Kuku is an architect and artist. He studied at the Southern Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. His roots are in Nigeria, a country where he also lived for a relatively short period. He currently lives and works in Brussels. Ola-dele Kuku has given courses at the Milan Politecnico (Italy) and Delft University of Technology (Netherlands). He recently taught at the Tilburg Academy of Architecture (Netherlands). In 1995 he was awarded the Grand Prize – Prime Minister’s Prize during the IFI Nagoya International Design Competition and in 1997 he received the Public Prize in the VIZO’s Henry van de Velde Awards. More info on www.ola-delekuku.com
Martine De Maeseneer
MDMA l Martine De Maeseneer Architects has been around for 25 years of practicing, theorizing and teaching within an international forum of schools, colloquia and competitions. Two books appeared in conjunction with individual exhibitions: ‘The Indivisible Space’, Antwerp (1993) and ‘Ideality-3-Lost’, Brussels (1997). Their (first) public building of a certain scale, the Bronks Youth Theatre in the centre of Brussels, was in 2011 honoured as the first ever Belgian finalist in the European Mies van der Rohe Award for contemporary architecture. So far their journey followed a limited edition of realisations of private houses, office buildings, and social housing, all of them extensively published. Essays published (with such titles as ‘Aperitif Time’, ‘What Matters’ and ‘Parsing Traps’) have been adding up as chapters in a more substantial yet unpublished book. From 2001 to 2003 De Maeseneer took up a teaching job at the AA in London, and is currently a design unit master at Luca Brussels/Ghent. Within the practice there is a continous search for an expanded field of patterns, motives, logos, plots, timbres – trying to give architecture a countanance that draws upon ‘writing’. Ironically so, the choice made from the onset to theorize in a tradition of Venturi-Scott Brown, Aldo Rossi and Rem Koolhaas has refrained MDMA from building a lot.
Gideon Boie (1975, Bruges) is an architect-philosopher and runs, together with Matthias Pauwels, the cultural research and consultancy agency BAVO. Its core activities focus on the political dimension of art, architecture and urbanism. BAVO is located in Rotterdam, Brussels and Pretoria. More info on www.bavo.biz
“You cannot see, hear or feel ideas. Design and architecture are thus a way for ideas to materialize “
Until the end of August 2012
Similar differences
Until the end of August 2012, the furniture object “Similar differences“, designed by Ola-Dele Kuku, a designer / architect with Nigerian roots, presented in the Design museum Gent. The remarkable storage cabinet is part of a series. Ola Dele-Kuku drew this architectural object, the implementation was done by the VTI woodworking students from Roeselare. The collaboration illustrates the social conscience of the designer / architect, who may also be called philosopher, artist and researcher.
‘S P E A K I N G I N V E R N A C U L A R’
Exposition – Présentation du livre
30 Mars – 22 Avril 2012
INAUGURATION : Jeudi 29 Mars 2012
(18.00 – 22.00)
Philippe Laeremans Gallery 27, Rue des Minimes 1000 Brussels
Pour Ola-Dele Kuku (architecte artiste) l’art traditionnel africain et l’art
moderne et contemporain sont absolument indissociables, compte tenu de
l’influence active et l’apport du premier sur le second. Philippe Laeremans
entame ici sa deuxième confrontation entre l’art traditionnel et l’oeuvre de
l‘artiste, composée de dessin, d’images, de peinture, de collage,
de physique et de chimie.
(Roger Ndéma Kingué)
Limited Edition
SPEAKING IN VERNACULAR Ola – Dele Kuku
Monograph – 2012 – 178 pages
Texts by : Sara Weyns F. K ehinde Oluyadi Chika Unigwe Roger Ndéma Kingué
Layout : Wilfrieda Paessens
With the participation of : Philippe Laeremans Van Maradi Foundation
Ola-Dele Kuku RTBF interview – Passeurs de mondes – 2011
Un passeur de monde pourrait se définir tel une personne à identités multiples qui, dans sa vie ou sa profession, mélange quotidiennement plusieurs cultures. L’idée de cette série, c’est de donner la parole à ces personnages qui font la diversité de Bruxelles.
Re-ACT by design is the theme of an annual series of international workshop weeks for master students product development, architecture, interior architecture, heritage studies, and urbanism and spatial planning of the Faculty of Design Sciences at the University of Antwerp and for students of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of the AP University College.
Held on the 7th of September 2016, ‘A Continuous State Of Time‘ is an interactive programme of lectures, debates and workshops on the contemporary phenomenon of conflict in architecture and art, in times of socio-cultural transformation. As an integral component of the formation and evolution of a social system, conflict emerges as a significant mechanism that instigates change rather than unanimity. This phenomenon materializes in the form of various vital events such as wars, natural disasters, emigrations, population displacements, birth, death, and choice. These events ultimately become the stimuli and variants in the transformation of societies.
2013-ConflictDesign catalogus_Conflict Culture.compressed View PDF
Photo © Christian Carez
Designing for Conflict and Chaos – ola-dele kuku itv Kurt Vanbelleghem
View PDF