Creating reality. The work of Geert Bekaert

• Main Author: María Teresas Muñoz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid 2018-12-01
• Series: Cuadernos de Proyectos Arquitectónicos
• Subjects: geert bekaert; reality; belgian architecture; paul valery; le corbusier; rem koolhaas
• Online Access: http://polired.upm.es/index.php/proyectos_arquitectonicos/article/view/3998
• ISSN: 2171-956X; 2174-1131

Abstract Geert Bekaert was born in 1928 in Kortrijk, Belgium, and wrote extensively about architecture throughout his life, mostly in his Dutch language; his essays have been collected in nine volumes published between 1985 and 2011. That same 2011, five years before his death in 2016, his disciple Christophe Van Gerrewey edited a book compilation in English; it was entitled Rooted in the Real and in its introduction, this editor examines the trajectory of the Belgian critic and provides certain clues about his interests and the repercussion of his ideas, highlighting Bekaert´s commitment to its original language and the fact that he is situated geographically between a country with hardly any architectural tradition as Belgium and another with an extraordinary concentration of production and theory on modern architecture such as the Netherlands. The book is divided into four parts: the first one is committed to general themes of architecture, the second to commentaries on a series of Belgian architects and the other two to the work of different relevant international architects, from Le Corbusier to Rem Koolhaas. According to the editor, the title of the anthology was chosen based on Geert Bekaert´s conception of architecture as an essential way to create reality, that is, in his belief that architecture acts fundamentally as a mediator, making life, if not better, at least more bearable and acceptable.