Narrative Architecture

Sylvain De Bleeckere, prof. em. dr. phil., worked as assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University in Flanders (Belgium). He was responsible for the graduate seminar Culture and was a leading member of the research group ArcK. Cross-fertilization between the design studio and research activities is central to his work. Since 1977, Sylvain De Bleeckere has continuously published about the postmodern philosophy of culture in relation to democracy, architecture, and cinematography.Sebastiaan Gerards holds a Master's degree in Architecture (Hasselt University, 2010) and Arts and Heritage (Maastricht University, 2012). Since the end of 2012 he has been working as a PhD student at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University, Belgium. The main focus of his research is the social and architectural design of multigenerational dwelling as a renewed housing concept for Flanders. A key element in his work is the design assignment ‘multigenerational dwelling’, which he organizes with Sylvain De Bleeckere at Hasselt University. Together they have developed a new collaborative educational strategy to respond to growing social and cultural complexity (in residential Flanders).

• Setting The Scene. 1. Thinking. 1.1. The Narrative of Architecture. 1.2. Phenomenology and the Crisis of European Sciences. 1.3. The Phenomenon. 1.4. In the School of Time. 2. Imagining. 2.1. In the Beginning There Was Imagination, But In the End it Was Lost. 2.2. Reimagining Imagination. 2.3. The Heart of Storytelling. 2.4. Metaphor’s Story. 2.5. The Designer’s Dionysian Imagination. 2.6. Moral Imagination. 2.7. A Personal Way of Life. 3. Educating. 3.1. The Narrative of Education. 3.2. Architecture as Educator. 3.3. Educating the Architect. 3.4. Reconnecting with Life in the Design Studio. 3.5. The Ultimate Question. 4. Designing. 4.1. Scope. 4.2. Skills and Methods. Open-Ended Stories. Index.