Aménagement du Hall des Beaux-Arts par Lucien-Jacques Baucher

Supervisors : Denis Derycke & Irène Lund
Submitted on September 2013

Abstract:
After the cultural revolution of May 68, culture and arts are no longer meant to be the privilege of the elite, but to be accessible to the whole people. In the early 1970s, Lucien Jacques Baucher, Marc Libois and Michel Draps designed a metal structure completely filling the sculpture hall of Victor Horta’s Palais des Beaux-Arts. The main principle was to have an agora at the center, surrounded by terraces and galleries for the public all around. The concept of the project was to be flexible and adaptable, and to host contemporary art exhibitions, concerts and other cultural events in such highly symbolic space. The project could have been listed as heritage along with the space hosting it, but was destroyed in the mid-1990s, despite protest from major cultural personalities. This documentary short film presents the history this iconic structure, from its genesis to its demise. The story is illustrated by a 3D restitution hypothesis of the project, inserted in a 3D digitization of the hall of Horta’s building. The research was undertaken under the supervision of the architects themselves, with the support of their archives.