The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) opened the exhibition Besides, History: Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen, curated by Giovanna Borasi, CCA Chief Curator. The exhibition presents a conversation initiated by the CCA, with the conviction that studying architecture’s ideas involves using the past and the present as tools to envision the future. The conversation, which took place over the past year, involves Go Hasegawa (Go Hasegawa and Associates, Tokyo), Kersten Geers and David Van Severen (OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Brussels), and the history of architecture. This dialogue is now on view in the CCA’s main galleries from 10 May until 15 October 2017.
What role can history play in contemporary architecture practice?
Besides, History, an exhibition in Canadian Centre for Architecture, examines the role that history plays in contemporary architecture practice. The invited architects reread, redraw, translate, and appropriate from the past and from each other in order to construct relationships and meaning out of a constellation of references. Collected from many historical periods and geographies, these references -Andrea Palladio, John Hejduk, Aldo Rossi, Kazunari Sakamoto, and others- reveal a very different attitude of inquiry, more directly related to the architects’ aesthetic research without becoming strictly operational or literal. 

Rather than adopting a postmodern attitude or evoking past discussions and historical architectural forms, Go Hasegawa, Kersten Geers, and David Van Severen address contemporary issues in their work while remaining in dialogue with history. Even with distinct pasts and contexts, affinities emerge in shared concerns and approaches.

In this exhibition, the architects reread, redraw, translate, and appropriate from the past and from each other in order to construct relationships and meaning out of a constellation of references. History becomes something that can be used rather than just studied.
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Curator
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Giovanna Borasi, CCA Chief Curator.
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Graphic design
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Irobe Design Institute, Tokyo.
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Venue
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1920, rue Baile, Montréal (Québec) H3H 2S6. Canada.
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May 10–Oct 15, 2017.
Wed+Fri 11am–6pm, Thu 11am–9pm, Sat+Sun 11am–5pm, Mon+Tue Closed.
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OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen was founded in 2002 by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. Since its establishment, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen has earned a reputation as one of Belgium’s most successful and renowned practices, and one of the world’s truly original voices in present-day architecture. OFFICE engages in all architectural and urbanist design, creating projects of all scales ranging from furniture to master planning in Belgium as well as internationally. This practice is combined with academic research and teaching. These two aspects of Office’s work are explicitly each other’s mirror, creating unexpected parallels between academic and practical work.

Kersten Geers (Ghent, 1975), graduated in Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Ghent, Belgium, and the Esquela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura in Madrid, Spain. He worked with Maxwan Architects and Urbanists and with Neutelings Riedijk Architects in Rotterdam. He was a professor at the University of Ghent, and visiting professor at Columbia University, NYC, and the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio (CH), and is currently teaching at the EPFL, Lausanne (CH), and Harvard Graduate School of Design (US). He is a founding member of the architecture magazine San Rocco.

David Van Severen (Ghent, 1978), graduated in Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Ghent, Belgium, and the Esquela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura in Madrid, Spain. Since 1995 he designed and made several objects, installations, and furniture. He worked with Stéphane Beel Architects, Xaveer De Geyter Architects, and Atelier Maarten Van Severen. He was a teacher and guest critic at the Academy of Amsterdam, the TU Delft, the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam (NL), and the Architecture School of Versailles (FR), and he’s currently guest tutor at  Harvard Graduate School of Design (US).

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Published on: May 14, 2017
Cite: "Besides, History: Go Hasegawa, keratin Geers, David Van Severen" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/besides-history-go-hasegawa-keratin-geers-david-van-severen> ISSN 1139-6415
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