An unconventional, dazzling and multilayered book on one of the most idiosyncratic architects/artists of the past forty years
Since founding T.O.P. (‘Turn On Planning’) office in the 1970s, Belgian architect and artist Luc Deleu (born 1944) has been working on a critical, sociological and ecological approach to urbanism that he has named ‘orbanism’: an eco-centric global urbanism that has anticipated such contemporary concerns as environmental pollution, overpopulation, food production and the conflict between the individual and the community.
Orban Space traces Deleu’s work and practice through a conceptual topography defined by seven terms: architecture, imitation, depiction, sculpture, scale, mobility and manifesto. Each term will be dealt with in a critical text and visual essay by seven authors and seven artists: John Macarthur, Maarten Delbeke, Stefaan Vervoort, Felicity D. Scott, Wouter Davidts, Teresa Stoppani, Guy Châtel, Marjolijn Dijkman, UP (Koenraad Dedobbeleer & Kris Kimpe), Manfred Pernice, Luc Deleu, Kersten Geers, Metahaven, Aglaia Konrad
An unconventional, dazzling and multilayered book on one of the most idiosyncratic architects/artists of the past forty years
Since founding T.O.P. (‘Turn On Planning’) office in the 1970s, Belgian architect and artist Luc Deleu (born 1944) has been working on a critical, sociological and ecological approach to urbanism that he has named ‘orbanism’: an eco-centric global urbanism that has anticipated such contemporary concerns as environmental pollution, overpopulation, food production and the conflict between the individual and the community.
Orban Space traces Deleu’s work and practice through a conceptual topography defined by seven terms: architecture, imitation, depiction, sculpture, scale, mobility and manifesto. Each term will be dealt with in a critical text and visual essay by seven authors and seven artists.
IMITATION - John Macarthur - Marjolijn Dijkman
ARCHITECTURE - Maarten Delbeke - UP (Koenraad Dedobbeleer & Kris Kimpe)
SCULPTURE - Stefaan Vervoort - Manfred Pernice
MOBILITY - Felicity D. Scott - Luc Deleu
SCALE - Wouter Davidts - Kersten Geers
DEPICTION - Teresa Stoppani - Metahaven
MANIFESTO - Guy Châtel - Aglaia Konrad
Next to these essays, the book contains an autobiography of T.O.P. office and an interview of Hans De Wolf with Isabelle De Smet and Steven Van den Bergh, staff since 1997. Luc Deleu / T.O.P. office: Orban Space situates the work and practice within a broader theoretical and historical framework, where they emerge from the lineage defined by such idiosyncratic utopian visionaries as the Metabolists, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Superstudio, Yona Friedman and Constant Nieuwenhuis.
