Paysage, agriculture et architecture

What future for the rural landscape in Wallonia? What role should landscape play in regional planning policies? What links still exist between the land and the rural built environment in terms of its materiality and typology? What kind of landscape transition does the current ecological and agrarian transition require?

Urban architect Marc Verdier (Paysages de l'après Pétrole collective) and the Entre les lignes research project by architects Tomás Barberá Ramallo and Arthur Stache will open up new possibilities for our approach to the rural landscape.

Tomás Barberá Ramallo and Arthur Stache, both architects, have carried out the research project Entre les lignes (Between the Lines), focusing on the rural built environment. Through photography and architectural drawing, the project examines how rurality, inherited from the vernacular - an architectural style linked to local resources and geographical constraints - fits into a dialogue between romantic heritage and contemporary needs. The study, carried out by exploring the Belgian valleys and analysing architectural typologies, aims to ‘name, contextualise and share part of this anonymous landscape and architectural heritage. In short, to create a common basis for discussion on the notion of rurality and its relevance in a context of economic and ecological crises’.

Marc Verdier is an architect, urban planner, teacher-researcher and scientific director of the Nouvelles Ruralités / Architecture et milieux vivants research chair in France. Since 2015, he has also been a founding member of the Paysages de l'après Pétrole (PAP) collective, which brings together landscape and regional players and professionals around the idea that landscape is a tool for looking at, thinking about and planning for a happy and inclusive transition in lifestyles and living environments.

The first part of the evening will be devoted to the film Vers une nouvelle ruralité? (Towards a new rurality?), directed by Camille Van Durme and commissioned by the ICA, which explores the rural areas of Wallonia. This road movie reports on the walks organised by the ICA during the summer of 2024 and heralds the autumn meetings. The videographer observes the way in which these areas are viewed, listens to the issues at stake and transmits the visions developed by Belgian architects, town planners and landscape architects who are accompanying the transition to a new rurality.

Moderated by : Audrey Contesse (Institut Culturel d’Architecture Wallonie-Bruxelles)

FREE ON REGISTRATION VIA THE FORM HERE →