Kieckens Christian

Christian Kieckens was a Belgian artist, born in Aalst in 1951 and deceased in Brussels in 2020. He was an architect, photographer and lecturer. He obtained his architecture degree at Sint-Lucas in Ghent in 1974, together with contemporaries such as Marie-José Van Hee, Marc Dubois and Paul Robbrecht. From the very beginning, he played a prominent role in the Belgian architectural scene, not only as an architect and pedagogue, but also as a driving force in the arts and cultural sector.

Together with Robbrecht & Daem, Stéphane Beel and Wim Cuyvers, he is considered part of the "Nieuwe Eenvoud" (New Simplicity) movement — a minimalist architectural current aiming to reduce design to its essential core. In his own words: “Designing architecture in which every part is necessary. Nothing more, but also nothing less.”

He was co-founder and a leading figure behind the Architecture Museum Foundation (1983–1992). In 2002, he established his own practice: Christian Kieckens Architects, based in Brussels. He also held academic positions, teaching at the Artesis University College in Antwerp, at TU Eindhoven (1999–2002), and at architecture schools in Breda, Arnhem (until 2016) and Maastricht (2017–2020). He received the Godecharle Prize for Architecture in 1981 and the Flemish Culture Prize for Architecture in 1999. In 2017, he was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at De Singel, entitled The House, the Human and the Archive. (BT)