Tomas Nollet and Hilde Huyghe, Project for PhD, terraced housing at Bachte Maria Leerne, Belgium

Thursday 24 February – Friday 11 March 2011, Roland Levinsky, University of Plymouth

Tomas Nollet and Hilde Huyghe, husband and wife, are architects since 1992. They received several national prizes for their terraced houses and other buildings. Nollet teaches architectural design at Sint-Lucas School of Architecture, Brussels. He currently is also a doctoral student at FAA, the Faculty of Architecture and the Arts, Brussels, on the subject ‘Between Brief and Building’. Central to his research is his interest in the process of formation.

The exhibition shows three of their projects for terraced housing in Belgium through this particular design process and the final results.

In the design process the influence of other arts is essential for Nollet and Huyghe. The sketch and the drawing therefore have a special status.

Tomas Nollet comments on his practice:

“To judge from the glossy magazines and similar publications on architecture, it looks as though the architect has a very easy and attractive profession. You get a commission for an interesting project, and many years later the building is delivered; if all is well it will be published and lauded as exemplary of its genre. When it is exposed to a wider audience, consisting mainly of professional colleagues, you receive criticism and you take your lessons from the experience. While going through this process, or maybe just after, it starts from scratch. People are usually not aware of the years of intensive research that are needed to reach the final result. You have studied a program of functions and you must at the same time allow for changes it may undergo over the years. You have collaborated with building engineers and you have presented your design several times for the benefit of the clients, target groups, local residents etc. You have investigated various options and made thousands of drawings. We assume that the methods we use in our own studio are not unlike those used in other firms. We are not referring to the eventual ‘style’ that these result in, but in the modus operandi. I hope that through my study, people will obtain a better picture of everyday practice in an architectural studio.”

On the opening night there will be talks by Tomas Nollet on his doctoral research and by architect and writer Marc Dubois on his research on Belgian terraced housing.

The exhibition is made in collaboration with ed.projects – edith doove and the Plymouth Architectural Trust/Plymouth RIBA.

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