URBAN PROJECTS
Rooted in architecture, LAb[au] continues to shape its artistic practice through architectural thinking.
Its early concept of 'Datascapes' already established databases as frameworks from which new forms and meanings emerge. This principle remains central to works such as the Colour Archive and the Library of Possibles and Probables.
Likewise, its time-based modelling introduced time as an active parameter shaping spatial configurations. First explored through urban planning, time has ever since become a central field of research in its own right, informing recent investigations into colour and the monochrome.
These early projects also developed the notion of the city as a hypertextual environment: a dense fabric of interconnected signs, symbols, data and relations through which meanings continuously emerge. This understanding continues to shape LAb[au]'s artistic practice, where each work functions as a dynamic field of relations rather than a fixed composition.
Here, the artist's canvas becomes a matrix of emergent meanings, expanding into the city, where meanings are continuously rewritten through art.
2020–1997
URBAN STUDIES AND COMPETITIONS
Kontext(e), 2020
Urban lighting competition for pedestrian crossings
Freiham, Munich, Germany
In collaboration with Bartenbach Lighting Design, Austria
A6K E6K, 2019
Urban design study for the redevelopment of the former Tri Postal
Commissioned by Catch-Charleroi, Creative and Digital Catalyst
Charleroi, Belgium
Lakeshore, 2016
Finalist in the urban development competition for Block 8
In collaboration with Mills Public Art Management
Lakeshore Station, Toronto, Canada
Brussels Ring Culture, 2016
First prize in the Urban Redevelopment Competition
Redevelopment of the city ring from Porte de Louise to Porte de Namur
In collaboration with POLO Architects and Arcadis
Brussels, Belgium
Maubeuge, 2015
Pre-feasibility study for an artistic light trail
City centre of Maubeuge, France
Commissioned by the Urban Community of Maubeuge Val de Sambre
The Gardiner, 2011
Finalist in the competition to transform the Gardiner Expressway
In collaboration with Mills Public Art Management
Gardiner Expressway, Toronto, Canada
Silo d’Arenc, 2010
Finalist in the competition for the redesign of the public realm
Le Silo d’Arenc, Marseille, France
Lotto Arena, 2009
Lighting study for the Lotto Arena and its surroundings
Commissioned by Thierry De Ridder, Talkability
City Ring, Antwerp, Belgium
Belliard, 2009
Urban design and lighting scheme for Rue Belliard
Commissioned by Art & Facts in collaboration with Université libre de Bruxelles and the European Parliament
Rue Belliard, Brussels, Belgium
INDESEM ’03: Fast Forward, A Driving Perception, 2003
Urban planning workshop
TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands
Lightscape(s), displacement maps, 2000
Lighting master plan for the Heysel Plateau for UEFA Euro 2000
Heysel Plateau and the A12 motorway, Brussels, Belgium
Commissioned by Electrabel/Sibelgaz (now Engie), Brussels, Belgium
Transit(e), 1998
Urban study rethinking the city and its hinterland
Midi Station and its surroundings, Brussels, Belgium
Commissioned by AVA and SPRL Patrice Neirinck
Réalité / Fictions, 1998
Urban study and exhibition exploring seven critical fictions for Euralille 2
FMJ project by LAb[au], in dialogue with Marin Kasimir and David Everard
Round-table discussion with Jean Nouvel and Rem Koolhaas
Commissioned by the Lille Flandres Intercommunal Authority
Espace Croisé, Euralille, Lille, France
Liquid Axis, 1997
Third prize in the international urban design competition
Aristotelous: Redesigning the Civic Axis of Thessaloniki
City centre, Thessaloniki, Greece
URBAN LANDMARKS
Catadioptric Tower, 2019
Study for the redevelopment and branding of a logistics hotel
In collaboration with AIA Architects, Lyon
Commissioned by ELLU (Lyon Urban Logistics Space)
Urban logistics hub, Avenue Tony Garnier, Lyon, France
Palimpsest, 2016
Realisation of a permanent light artwork
Commissioned by the City of Ghent
Former cooling tower, De Porre, Ghent, Belgium
SiloScope, 2011–2014
Permanent cybernetic urban sculpture
Realised under the French 1% artistique programme
Quai Jules Guesde, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
Transmit, 2011
Urban design competition for Grand Lyon Habitat
In collaboration with Superflux and Roger Tator
Boulevard des États-Unis, Cité Tony Garnier, Lyon, France
Résidence Plein Ciel, 2008
Artistic intervention in a housing estate
Commissioned by La Ferme du Buisson
under the direction of José-Manuel Gonçalvès
Résidence Plein Ciel, Le Mée-sur-Seine, France
Weathertower, 2008–2009
Illumination of the Dexia Tower
Commissioned by Dexia Bank
under the direction of CEO Axel Miller
Dexia Tower, Place Rogier, Brussels, Belgium
Chronotower, 2007
Generative illumination of the Dexia Tower
Commissioned by Dexia Bank
under the direction of CEO Axel Miller
Dexia Tower, Place Rogier, Brussels, Belgium
TOUCH, 2006–2007
Interactive illumination of the Dexia Tower
Commissioned by Dexia Bank
under the direction of CEO Axel Miller
Dexia Tower, Place Rogier, Brussels, Belgium
Beffroi (watchtower), 2001
Real-time panoramic and networked landscape
Study commissioned by the City of Tournai
Beffroi de Tournai, Tournai, Belgium