Lecture

Quiet

On (the right to) being in public space

2024 United Kingdom Netherlands Urban planning

Thursday

12.12

20:00

Theater Tinnenpot - Beckettzaal

Tinnenpotstraat 21

9000 Gent

Free to all members
€10 for non-members
€5 for students

With the support of:

Geert Peymen en Pleuntje Jellema (NL/B)
New South (FR/B)

As the final lecture of working year 2024, we look at the hospitality of public space. We pay attention to the individual experience of space and the need for quiet or spaces of rest in the city. This evening, we show practices that incorporate this into the design process, making radically different choices and challenging the architectural discourse.

Guy Livingstone

Geert Peymen en Pleuntje Jellema, De Luwteplek

The book ‘De Luwteplek’ by Geert Peymen and Pleuntje Jellema is the result of an investigation into spatial parameters that make urban public spaces places of silence, tranquillity and stillness. The concept of the lee (‘luwte’) – as a place in the river where the current has no hold – symbolises what a place of silence can mean within an urban landscape. The lee place, as a new typology, can help shape the city of the future. They discuss the development of this concept over recent years and the impact it can have on how public space is viewed.

Guy Livingstone

Pleuntje Jellema

Geert Peymen

Meriem Chabani and Pieter De Walsche, New South

The emphasis on experience, on ‘being’ in public space is echoed by the firm NEW SOUTH, a studio for architecture, urbanism and anthropology based in Paris and Brussels. They like to quote Bell Hook’s statement “We put the margin at the centre” and ask how hospitality is extended to the margins, how other voices can be heard and given (public) space in the city? At the intersection of research and practice, they engage with areas in tension, with a focus on vulnerable bodies and fragile places. They recently launched a series of projects in Belgium, particularly in Brussels. They will bring a dialogue between the agency’s development and how they work together and recent projects.

The office has received a number of awards, amongst which the Europe 40 under 40, the Graham Foundation Grant, the Holcim Awards for sustainable construction, and Europan 14.

New South

Antoine Guerin

Matthieu Torres