Quels outils pour construire la nouvelle ruralité ?

What potential does the rural environment have for experimenting with new ways of living, producing and consuming? What are the vectors of transition represented by mobility and social links? How can we achieve a concept of the territory based on relationships? How can we enhance the quality of rural lifestyles and environments and enrich the culture of the built environment?

Aglaée Degros's research into reinterpreting the links between mobility and landscape, Norbert Nelles's initiatives rooted in local resources, and the participatory design tools developed by Ward Verbakel, will all point the way towards a collective rethink of rural planning.

Aglaée Degros is an architect, urban planner, director of Artgineering and professor and director of the Institute of Urban Planning at Graz University of Technology. In various research and design projects, such as those on the transition of Luxembourg (in collaboration with Harvard University), she reinterprets the relationship between mobility, landscape, urban development and rural revitalisation. She is a member of the Landluft committee, which promotes high-quality rural urban development in Austria. Together with landscape architect Eva Schwab, she has published the book Territorial Justice (2019).

Norbert Nelles is an architect, co-founder of the Artau group (1984-2002), teacher (2010-18) and co-dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Liège (2011). His approach to architecture and his teaching are deeply rooted in rural life, and his current projects take advantage of the dynamism of rural businesses, the social ties that are specific to rural life and local resources. He was also the scientific co-director of the Guide d'architecture moderne et contemporaine de l'arrondissement de Verviers (2022) and a member of the editorial committee of Inventaire#4 Vers une démarche architecturale régénérative (2023).

In his book Toolbox dorpse architectuur (Village Architecture Toolbox), engineer-architect, urban planner and teacher Ward Verbakel (Plus Office) offers design tools in the form of village ‘figures’ and ‘tactics’ for living in a plural way. The toolbox is an invitation to citizens, administrations and politicians to get down to work together, start a conversation about what exactly constitutes good village architecture and test out the design ideas on the ground.

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)

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