Although the Dutch Benedictine monk and architect Dom Hans van der Laan (1904-1991) built only four convents and a house, they are part of our collective memory, inspiring architects today. This rather limited but exceptional oeuvre is the result of a life-long quest to define architectural fundamentals, brought together in his book Architectonic Space, fifteen lessons on the disposition of the human habitat.

What is the link between the theory and the practice?

In her lecture, Caroline Voet will unravel the interwoven genealogy and evolution of theory, practice and building, from Van der Laan’s first 1923 design sketches to his later elementary and austere architecture.

Prof.Caroline Voet, architect PhD, KULeuven, Faculty of Architecture, Belgium

Caroline Voet is co-founder of the award winning architectural practice Voet en De Brabandere in Antwerp, Belgium. She focuses on reconversions and the design of cultural buildings, public interiors, scenography and furniture. She works for clients as the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi), Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp and Manneken Pis Museum in Brussels.

Caroline Voet is professor at the KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture, Campus St-Lucas Ghent and Brussels, where she received her Ph.D. in 2013 on the work of Dom Hans van der Laan. She holds degrees in architecture from the Architectural Association in London and the Henry van de Velde Institute in Antwerp. Her research and teaching focus is on spatial systematic and architectural methodology and has been published in for example ARQ and Interiors Routledge. She wrote for the Architectural Yearbook Flanders and in 2016 she was co-editor of the book Autonomous Architecture in Flanders.

She recently published Dom Hans van der Laan. Tomelilla (Architectura and Natura) and ‘Dom Hans van der Laan. A House for the Mind’ (VAi).

www.carolinevoet.be

www.voetendebrabandere.be

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Professor Caroline Voet: Dom Hans van der Laan. ‘A House for the Mind’

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