Luc Binst: “UNTITLED can be seen as a stepping stone in a process that you as an agency have been trying to follow for many decades. The agency has now existed for fifty years. That’s a moment we didn’t want to just let pass by. We have already published several books, but the previous one dates from eight years ago. In the meantime, there was a lot of work from the past five to ten years that lent itself to making a synthesis. But more than that, we see this moment as the kick-off of a new design methodology for ourselves.
The book is actually a symbiosis between R&D and considering a number of issues as a practicing agency, but from a certain distance. Based on many attitudes and baselines, divided into eight complementary chapters, we, as an agency of this scale, want to give a signal of how we want to approach the profession further. Above all, it is a sincere and honest book, a blueprint and cornerstone of our agency today.”
How did you go about defining those eight chapters?
Luc Binst: “We definitely wanted to distance ourselves from the classic ‘project book’, which neatly accommodates many projects. For years we have been trying to incorporate more theory into the office. This year we also want to start our own R&D team, as a permanent part of BINST ARCHITECTS, in addition to the practicing part. The book is actually the kick-off to guide that process, to mold and shape it with a number of people.
UNTITLED has grown from the belief that architecture, due to its complexity today, must be approached as different parts. We have thus arrived at eight complementary chapters, with attention, for example, to the issue of affordable reconversion – how can we repurpose heritage? – but also to tailor-made urbanismhumane urban planning à la carte, which is contextually anchored in a smart way.”
Quite a sandwich, which we will discuss in detail in this podcast series. But before we do that: why the book’s intriguing title, UNTITLED?
Luc Binst: “We have searched for a suitable concept for a very long time. Ultimately we chose UNTITLED as a kind of graphical coding of the book. We then gave the eight letters of the word their own expression that is related to each of the eight chapters. In addition, ‘Untitled’ is of course also a concept that often occurs in the art world, as an invitation from the artist to the viewer to judge the work of art for themselves. In a similar way, we would like to invite readers of our book to get started with it themselves. ‘UNTITLED’ is also an abstract label that identifies and packages the book in an iconic way.”
Luc Deleu and Klaas Goris, you have already received the book prior to this conversation. What was your first impression?
Luc Deleu: “I can’t say I’ve read much into it yet. But I did leaf through it page by page and especially looked at “the pictures”. It is immense what you receive as information. Such an abundance that I had to go through it several times. How many pages does the book have, Luc?”
Luc Binst: “1376. We scanned the maximum book thickness. And by choosing ultra-thin paper that is just not transparent, we have created so many pages.”
Luc Deleu: “I find the chapter about the facades the most intriguing. Especially because it gives me as a reader the most insight into BINST ARCHITECTS. It shows me how Luc wonders very hard how he does other things with such a large agency. And something like that doesn’t happen by itself.”
Klaas Goris: “In 2009 we published a book with Coussée-Goris-Huyghe architects. Our working title at the time was ‘building a book’. Because it was really a kind of building process, where we equally thought about how the book fits in your hand, how big it should be, how you structure it… And I have that same feeling here. Luc has already had a few publications and I noticed that a lot more thought has gone into this book.
On the other hand, it is also a strategic book in a way, with a lot of interesting study material, including – as Luc already indicated – those facade studies. But that also makes it a book that you can use in two ways. It is full of substantive and interesting things, which I can imagine that today’s construction world will also look at with wide eyes and perhaps even use in the wrong way. But read it in a positive way and it will contain a lot of food for thought. I think that is the great quality of the book: that BINST ARCHITECTS has tried to formulate what it wants to do as an agency, thereby creating an opening to put more depth into their work.”
Luc Binst: “That was indeed the intention of our book: to ‘formulate about ourselves’. But I think it’s almost an obligation as an agency to do that every now and then. I think it happens too little, at many other agencies, especially those of our scale. While that is part of our task today, because we also train a lot of people. There is a continuous influx of trainees, young people who we guide for many years. I see it as our duty to regularly provide them with a document like this, which can provide a backbone to your further development and obliges you to think things through. In a practicing office there is usually no time to synthesize. But now we thought, “Come on, this is the time to do that,” as one next step in the story of our agency.
