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Abstract:

The NEB recognizes the innovative potential of architecture in relation to our society’s need, digging into questions on the position of the discipline of architecture, its practice and its education. Questions that have been looked into within the Erasmus+ “Architecture’s Afterlife” research project. The study investigating the diverse trajectories of architecture alumni, clearly showed that the competencies acquired in architectural education set up a professional modus operandi and identity that can take many forms. One of the three inseparable NEB values, is about encouraging a dialogue across cultures, disciplines and genders. The search for the opening of new critical avenues promoting continuous improvement when rescuing ideas of critical production and the ability to think through design is rightly emphasized. This might be exactly what the Architecture’s Afterlife study has been able to highlight; the architect’s skill to look beyond, to find balance on the thin line between idealism and pragmatism, to maintain an overview while breaking down complexity into feasible components. Yet, another conclusion of the study emphasis how this ‘architectural mindset’ expands far beyond the limited field of architecture and construction. It can be found in the architect who became a mayor, a lightening designer, a landscape photographer… and in the ones who sticked to architecture ‘pur sang’. Looking at the NEB Festival in June 2022, the products, concepts and services at display showcase an architecture as we have known it, and art reflecting on societal visions and on recurring buzz concepts of ‘art & science’. Where are those often left invisible ‘beyond architects’ that expand and broaden the discipline? With this article we aim to reveal and highlight the manifold personas of the architect, in order to push for a more contemporary architectural thought and practice and to expand the boundaries of what architecture can be and do.