Jo Crepain

Jo Crepain (°Bruges, October 21, 1950 – †Antwerp, December 20, 2008) was a Belgian contemporary architect. He designed especially office buildings and schools in postmodern style.

Crepain graduated as an architect (1973) and urban planning (1977) at the Henry van de Velde Institute in Antwerp. He lived most of his life in Kapellen and worked as a teacher at the Academy of Ghent, the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam and the Henry van de Velde Institute in Antwerp.

In 1974, his first work, a house for hairdresser Wim Roels at the Hoevensebaan Kapellen, awarded the Prize Robert Maskens, the leading Belgian architectural prize. His first work was akin to that of Bob Van Reeth, the agency BARO and Herman Hertzberger.

From 1975 to 1981 he was a member of the cooperative design SILO. In 1986 he founded Jo Crepain Architect SA and in 2006 Crepain Binst Architecture, a collaboration with Luc Binst.

He advocated a certain chauvinism in the sense of more opportunities for young architects homegrown through design competitions. He was a convinced Flamingant. Jo Crepain won several awards in his career, with the Premio internazionale di architettura Andrea Palladio (1988) is most pronounced in the eye.

He died on December 20, 2008 from the effects of cancer.