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BERESKIN Emily Ambre
Units
HABITER Study center in Development, Territory and Landscapes
HABITER is the Study Center in Development, Territory and Landscape which, within the ULB's Faculty of Architecture La Cambre Horta, is engaged with the study of landscape, urban and territorial transformation dynamics in the North as well as in the South of the world. Its activities are focused on cooperation and development issues at large, with an ecological and cultural approach to sustainability and context. HABITER was created in June 2013, as a step in the development of research activities within the Faculty of architecture; a process started with the creation of the Center of Associated Labs for Research in Architecture CLARA in January 2011, and the unification of the two former superior institutes for architecture ISACF-La Cambre (founded 1927) and ISAI-Victor Horta (founded 1711 as Royal Academy of Fine Arts) and their integration in the university in 2010. HABITER develops its research activities in close link to the two other pillars of the university's mission: teaching and service to society. The members of HABITER explore the rationales of spatial and societal transformations of urban and non urban spaces, trough the peculiar tools of architecture, urban and landscape design, supported by the input of connected disciplines such as the Humanities, the Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences. The works developed within HABITER target fields such as cultural heritage, urban services, landscape, energy transition, local governance, sustainable neighbourhoods, etc. seen as the indicators and drivers of the ongoing developments and changes within cities and territories nowadays. The approach developed within HABITER is context- and scale-specific ' from the architectural object to the urban, landscape and territorial systems ' and turns its attention to the existing or required socio-political, technical, and spatial devices able to guarantee innovative forms of development, in relation to the rising frames of reference in regional planning, governance, landscape and ecological urbanism.
Projetcs
MODSCAPES deals with new rural landscapes produced by large-scale agricultural development and colonization schemes (ADCS) implemented in the 20th century throughout Europe and beyond. Conceived in different political and ideological contexts, the underlying agricultural development and colonization policies (ADCP) were pivotal to Nation-building and State-building, and to the modernization of the countryside. Such policies and schemes provided a testing ground for the ideas and tools of agronomists, environmental and social scientists, architects, engineers, planners, landscape architects and artists, which converged around a shared challenge. Their implementation produced modernist rural landscapes (MRL) which have seldom been considered as a transnational research topic.ADCP and ADCS had, and still have an impact on peoples' lives as individuals and communities, but are largely ignored by mainstream scholarship and policies in the field. As time passes, buildings and landscapes deteriorate, and the people who lived in them as they developed die out, so that MRL become more increasingly difficult to understand as unique forms of cultural heritage
MODSCAPES - Modernist reinventions of the rural landscape
MODSCAPES explores rural landscapes produced by large-scale agricultural development and colonisation schemes planned in the 20th century. This transnational research project investigates 11 case studies across Europe and beyond. … BUT WHO EVER HEARD ABOUT ‘MODERNIST’ RURAL LANDSCAPES? At first sight, there is a contradiction between ‘modernist’ and ‘rural’. Yet throughout the 20th century, many European States imagined, adopted and implemented large scale development and agricultural schemes to modernise the countryside: parliamentary as well as fascist regimes, socialist republics or colonial powers. Today, there are thousands of modernist farms, hamlets, villages and towns in Europe and beyond, where several million inhabitants live or have lived. Modernist rural development schemes were pivotal to Nation- and State-building policies, and to the modernization of the countryside. They provided a testing ground for the ideas of scientists, architects, engineers, planners, landscape architects and artists, who converged around a shared challenge. A TRANSNATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT MODSCAPES aims to explore, document, and raise awareness around this largely underestimated shared cultural heritage, which has seldom been the topic of international and interdisciplinary research. MODSCAPES introduces the concept of landscapes as a unifying paradigm between tangible (the built environment) and intangible legacies (the related cultural and sociopolitical contexts) to bridge the gap between research, practice and policies through a trans-disciplinary approach. Note ADCP: Agricultural Development and Colonization Schemes ADCS: Agricultural Development and Colonization Policies MRL: Modernist Rural Landscapes
