Wim Cuyvers

Date: 16 januari - 12 maart 2005

Wim Cuyvers (Hasselt, 1958) is the architect who rebuilt and renovated the new Stroom headquarters on the Hogewal. The most striking aspects of the finished building are the grand gesture, the big sizes, the spaciousness and the use of straighforward materials. Because Wim Cuyvers has a very broad view of architecture, it is very interesting to learn more about his ideas on the subject. That is why we invited him to make a presentation inside the building he rebuilt himself, throwing light on his activities: renovations for other clients, competition designs he submitted, projects for art in public space, and accounts of his walking tours, in which he sets out to look for true public space. For Cuyvers, observing the way public space can be used existentially, is a form of freedom and deregulation which a decade ago was still possible in and around the houses in Belgium. This melancholy for the past reverberates in the title he chose for his presentation: ‘From Belgium to nowhere'.

In order to give us an even more complete insight into his way of thinking, we invited him to edit a compilation of his columns in ‘Text On Text'. In impassioned prose, everything comes together: the autobiographical references, his way of looking at things, his literary tastes and passions.