Past Present Future II: Freek Persyn
John Hill
11. juni 2019
Freek Persyn (Photo: Luca Chiaudano, courtesy of 51N4E)
Itinerant Office's second edition of its "Past, Present, Future: about being an architect yesterday, today and beyond" project continues with an interview with Belgian architect Freek Persyn of 51N4E.
Buda Art Centre, 2012 (Photo: Filip Dujardin)
51N4E, a 35-person architecture firm based in Brussels, was founded in 1998 and is led by two partners, Freek Persyn and Johan Anrys. Persyn recounts in the "Past" clip a number of important early projects and places, including an allotment project that was met with opposition from other architects. He uses 51N4E's office, where the interview was recorded, as an example of the firm's "Present," which illustrates how they set up the conditions for a variety of projects. Persyn sees the "Future" of the firm and the profession by seeing the architect less as an author of buildings based on a brief, and more as a mediator between people through temporary occupations and other experiences.
Watch the interviews below or on Itinerant Office's Vimeo page.