Experience architecture!

With a programme of architecture tours, bike rides, lectures, publications and exhibitions, Archipel focuses on building: matter, construction, form, space in a context as visible facts and direct experience, perception and meaning.In addition, we explore the frayed edges where architecture and society meet, influence or collide by exploring topics such as urban nature, affordable housing, sustainability, inclusion or lee places.

As a nomadic non-profit organisation, we organise monthly lectures at interesting, changing, locations, mainly in East and West Flanders. Belgian and internationally leading architects and experts give passionate insights into their oeuvre or certain themes.

The annual trips have now spanned many countries in Europe, parts of the US, Japan, Brazil, India and others. We visit 20th-century icons or current groundbreaking architecture. Besides abroad, we also explore inland by bicycle, on foot or by tram. Last years we visited, among others, Charleroi, the coastline with the coastal tram or modernist heritage in Bruges for the Open Monuments Day.

Archipel seeks to capture where and how boundaries are pushed, where and how architecture, which can become timeless, is made. An existential quest for “What is architecture? A question we must and want to ask ourselves again and again. We look at new trends and challenges, but equally at historical positions that can give us direction.

We share that quest with people with a passion for authentic architecture, both professionals and non-professionals. Within the Flemish architectural landscape, a network with many cross-pollinations has thus been created across generations.