Lecture title: (RE)acting/(EN)acting, Circularity and Architecture 

This evening presentation and discussion panel will be centered around the theme of sustainability, circularity and architecture. This event brings together Philibert & Emmanuelle Déchelette (architects and cofounders of the Parisian office Déchelette Architecture) and Emile Deroose (senior architect at the Brussels-based office BC architects & studies) for a session of presentations and a panel discussion moderated by Andrea Pinochet (Associate professor at AHO) and Paul-Antoine Lucas (assistant professor at AHO). 
Following the OAT Academy 2022 workshop: (RE)acting/(EN)acting – Collective Dissidence, Reclaiming the Neighborhood, a series of discussion and knowledge exchange will occur at AHO throughout the fall. 
 
During the first session, on the 27th of September, we will discuss with Philibert & Emmanuelle Déchelette and Emile Deroose how contemporary practices in Europe (RE)act to the current ecological crisis and (EN)act new scenarios redefining the future of the profession. With diverse approaches, methodologies and tactics, Déchelette (FR) and BC architects & studies (BE) engage with sustainability, materiality, design and construction in innovative ways. Whether it is through material development or physical experiments, they redefine our discipline and influence the reform of the construction industry. The link between architecture, material research and development initiated by the two offices feels increasingly relevant in the midst of today’s climate crisis. The recent discourse in architecture has been highlighting the need for a change of methods, processes and encouraging new ways of doing. This discussion seeks to highlight practices that have already implemented strategies addressing this pressing challenge.
 
By asking the guests to reflect on their works, inspirations, ambitions and methods, we want to question what it means today to design, build, imagine and formulate new ideals for contemporary and future societies. We want to understand what keeps them motivated and what interests them the most in today’s context of social, political, ecological and disciplinary uncertainty. 




Déchelette Architecture is a studio founded in 2019 by a brother and a sister. They cultivate their affiliation throughout each project, sharing a common ambition for a demanding architecture and radical construction that address issues of resources through eco-design housing projects and experimentation on materials.
 
In this, Déchelette Architecture is part of a new generation that approaches architecture through matter, placing raw materials at the center of a constructive and creative devices, re-examining know-how in the face of the preciousness of resources. In 2022, the Déchelette Architecture will be turning in the first rammed earth house in Paris. This individual house promotes natural, biosourced, durable and local materials.
 
BC is BC architects and BC studies and BC materials. BC stands for Brussels Cooperation and points to how BC grew - embedded within place and people. BC is a hybrid practice, designing and undertaking "acts of building" towards systemic change in the construction sector. They strive for bioregional, low-tech, circular, beautiful and inclusive design. Working with minds and hands, they undertake activities such as community organisation, material production, contracting, teaching, prototyping. BC seeks to impact positively on people's ideas and planet, and act on behalf of the future generations.
BC operates through 3 different entities across different fields: BC architects is an architecture office, BC studies a non-profit focusing on research and dissemination and BC on material development and production.