common:latest-news
Discussion on Concentrico (ES) and Horst (BE) festivals on Wednesday 22nd of October at 7:00PM. Welcome!
For a strong, visionary and collaborative BMA!
More info here.
The exhibition The Moving Spirit is on show in the exhibition space et al. Visits possible every first Sunday of the month and on request!
Negotiating Ungers
In 1972, German architect Oswald Mathias Ungers and his students at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, developed a prototype for a Self-Help Housing System (S-HHS). Shortly before, Ungers and his wife Liselotte had begun a research project on utopian communities in the United States; the study was published in 1972 under the title “Communes in the New World 1740-1972”. Taken together, both projects point to the processual character and the broad agencies involved in architectural production.
On Tuesday 10 June we welcomed the editor Lars Fischer of common room for an introduction of the publication “Negotiating Ungers 3. The Self-Help Housing System and the Construction of Communities”. This was followed by a discussion with respondent Elodie Degavre, architect, educator and director of the film “La Vie en Kit” (Life, Assembled). This conversation was an opportunity to examine the originality of Ungers’ work in relation to Belgian experiments from the same historical period, which are explored in the film, as well as to reflect on the contemporary imaginaries that these experimental proposals invite us to reconsider. The event was moderated by two participants of the Negotiating Ungers workshops Gjiltinë Isufi (KU Leuven) and Fiachra McCarthy (F//AAT).
| common:date | 10.06.2026 |
In 1972, German architect Oswald Mathias Ungers and his students at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, developed a prototype for a Self-Help Housing System (S-HHS). Shortly before, Ungers and his wife Liselotte had begun a research project on utopian communities in the United States; the study was published in 1972 under the title “Communes in the New World 1740-1972”. Taken together, both projects point to the processual character and the broad agencies involved in architectural production.
On Tuesday 10 June we welcomed the editor Lars Fischer of common room for an introduction of the publication “Negotiating Ungers 3. The Self-Help Housing System and the Construction of Communities”. This was followed by a discussion with respondent Elodie Degavre, architect, educator and director of the film “La Vie en Kit” (Life, Assembled). This conversation was an opportunity to examine the originality of Ungers’ work in relation to Belgian experiments from the same historical period, which are explored in the film, as well as to reflect on the contemporary imaginaries that these experimental proposals invite us to reconsider. The event was moderated by two participants of the Negotiating Ungers workshops Gjiltinë Isufi (KU Leuven) and Fiachra McCarthy (F//AAT).