#11 Utopies

For its eleventh Temps d'Archi, the Cultural Institut of Architecture Wallonia-Bruxelles (ICA), in collaboration with the Mundaneum, the Musée des Beaux-Arts (CAP) and the Centre of Innovation and Design Grand-Hornu (CID), is offering a programme that takes utopias as a lever for thinking about living. ICA is inviting architects, urban planners, artists, activists and all those who are curious to reconsider what cities and architecture can do for people when they are reinvented. Between March and November 2025, exhibitions, meetings, visits, screenings and workshops will be taking place in Mons and elsewhere in Wallonia, to create situations that force people to invent new utopias.
 

Why utopias?

Utopias have been at work for centuries, shaping visions that enable us to look beyond reality and its constraints to project exciting futures. As a promising creative tool, utopias unfold as idealistic design systems, imaginary plans or speculative narratives to rethink ways of living and the new spaces in which we live. As a place of encounters and otherness, the city faces many challenges that can both threaten and guarantee the well-being of its inhabitants. As a place of experimentation, it transforms, mutates and reinvents itself, bringing with it many possibilities. It is therefore a privileged territory for utopias and the creation of new political and architectural narratives.
 

A call for contributions

In May 2024, a call for trans-disciplinary contributions (architecture combined with another discipline) on the subject of utopias was launched. The result? No fewer than 33 proposals were submitted, and 8 projects were selected by the jury (discover them here) to shape the core of our programming. Together, these actors will propose installations, participatory experiences and forward-looking reflections that will fuel a year of creation, exchange and inspiration.

Details of visits, screenings and educational workshops will be announced shortly!