B-Architecten

The B-architects collective, set up by Evert Crols, Dirk Engelen and Sven Grooten in 1997, soon made a name for itself with projects in which a certain pragmatic rawness reminiscent of artistic installations, dirty realism and street culture. Characteristic features of B-architecture are the unorthodox use of industrial prefab materials, the atypical rearrangement of volumes, and spatial flexibility. They have applied these principles to shops, offices, villas, collective housing and stage settings in Brecht, Antwerp, Paris and Tokyo. Their recent renovation of the Beursschouwburg in Brussels is a provisional and allegorical climax of their work. This exhibition is the first retrospective insight into the B-architects' cosmos, with a computer-generated view of the city into which thirty-seven projects from the last seven years have been incorporated. The exhibition will from 3rd September 2004 be on in Lille, which is the 2004 Cultural Capital of Europe.