AlICe lab 1994-2024: 30 Years – 30 Projects & Artifacts

Founded in 1994 by Marc Meurrens and Vincent Brunetta, AlICe Lab focuses on the formal analysis and graphic representation of architecture, viewing the digital model as a source of knowledge and a foundation for the study of architectural objects.

Born in the midst of the “digital revolution,” AlICe has never regarded the introduction of the computer as a revolution, but rather as an evolution. The laboratory thus seeks to establish a form of historical continuity between traditional projective methods and contemporary digital tools, situating its approach within a strictly epistemological framework.

Within AlICe, teaching and research focus on understanding the codes of canonical representation tools, as well as on the study of composition and formal languages; on the digital surveying and analysis of historical architectural objects, as well as on the generation of geometries through procedural modeling; and on drawing with instruments alongside 3D printing.

Spanning the laboratory’s 30-year history, 30 artifacts or projects—drawn from both research and teaching—demonstrate the diversity of its approaches and outputs. Together, they present an architectural universe that is both eclectic and coherent.

This retrospective exhibition was held at the Faculty of Architecture La Cambre Horta of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) from October to November 2024.

Exhibition concept and design: Michel Lefèvre & AlICe lab crew.

The authors of the featured projects are listed in the pages below.

Featured projects :

#01: Maison Van Buuren : relevé orthophotographique (2009) || #02: Perspectiva Virtualis (2019) || #03: Etude et interprétation du rôle des projections dans les dessins de Jean-Baptiste Hourliers (2016) || #04: Centre d'information de l'expo 58 de Baucher-Blondel-Filiponne - court métrage en images de synthèse (2012) || #05: Le squelette de la Maison du Peuple : hypothèse de restitution 3D (2017) || #06: Architectural analysis & computer process I - Candilis' Berlin University variations (2013) - Piet Blom's Noah's Ark variations (2014) - Richard Meier's houses variations (2015) || #07: Hypothèse de restitution des espaces remarquables du Palais Stoclet de Joseph Hoffmann (2024) || #08: Caractérisation de formes architecturales - complexité et intelligibilité des représentations numériques (2016) || #09: Bureaux Ferembal de Jean Prouvé - court métrage en images de synthèses (2016) || #10: (Close) Reading Morphosis (2021) || #11: Hypothèse de restitution des espaces remarquables de la Maison du Peuple de Victor Horta (2019) || #12: Analysis, Systems & Composition - Brian Eno's algorithm spatial transcription (2023) || #13: Places Royales Françaises - corrélation entre une analyse sémantique et un signal géométrique (2018) || #14: Survey and characterisation of the archaeological landscape of Lovo (2024) || #15: Peter Eisenman's Houses I to X - court métrage en images de synthèse (2002) || #16: Design Space/Analysis Space - Graphic Description of Compositional and Representational Devices (2017) || #17: Etude des planches II, III, et XXIII de l'Art de bâtir chez les Romains d'Auguste Choisy (2017) || #18: Drawing air: fluid still life (2023) || #19: Analyse et relevé du patrimoine bâti : spéculation compositionnelle sur le Palais Stoclet d'Hoffmann (2022) || #20: Formal analysis and computer process - An algorithm to compose geometry in a cube I/V (2018) – II/V (2019) – III/V (2020) – IV/V (2021) – V/V (2022) || #21: Building Drawings: decoding and recoding the graphic projection algorithm in architectural representation – I/II (2019) || #22: Re-presentation as an analytical tool in Baroque architecture (2022) || #23: Le Corbusier, Pavillon de la France pour l'Exposition de Liège en 1939 - hypothèse de restitution (2015) || #24: Analyse et relevé du patrimoine bâti: variation spéculative sur la tectonique de l'église Saint Augustin (2024) || #25: Analyse et relevé du patrimoine bâti: numérisation photogrammétrique de l'église Saint Augustin (2014) || #26: Projection de la façade de la Maison du Peuple de Victor Horta sur son site original (2023) || #27: Numérisation, représentation et l'analyse d'un site archéologique de grande échelle : Pachacamac 1532 (2019) || #28: Analyse et relevé du patrimoine bâti: étude du Petit théâtre du Château de Seneffe (2020) || #29: Le hall du Palais des Beaux-Arts par Lucien-Jacques Baucher - court métrage en images de synthèse (2013) || #30: Architectural analysis & computer process IV - Speculations about Paul Rudolph's Lower Manhattan Expressway (2016)