Pierre Hebbelinck, winner of the walloon Belgian Architecture Excellence Awards

At Batibouw, the country’s top architects were honored at the first edition of the Belgian Architecture Excellence Awards (BAEXA). The purpose of theses awards is to recognize architects or architectural offices for their innovative work, services to the architectural profession or promotion of architectural excellence. Pierre Hebbelinck’s studio was awarded the Walloon Region prize.

Pierre Hebbelinck received the first Belgian Architecture Excellence Awards from the Walloon Region (BAEXA) at a gala evening. Pierre Hebbelinck confides that “the BAEXA is a form of promotion and opportunity. Belgian architecture has become a European beacon, but I wasn't singled out just because I'm an architect. I also promote architecture”. For 40 years, Pierre Hebbelinck has been practicing this profession, which “has the capacity to transform the world. It's one of the rare professions where the resolution of complex equations is so high. We create value, we implement a design that doesn't exist in reality, but which may come into being in the future”.

Although he was not initially destined to become an architect, he ended up studying architecture after working as a publicist and baker. At the time, he was “convinced that architecture would enable him to do creative work, medicine, law - in short, a lot of things”. In fact, he was expelled from his school for 4 months for setting up an architecture boutique to offer pro deo services in the same way as law. He wanted to make architecture more accessible.

A decade of laboratory architecture with small projects followed, then another filled with public projects such as theaters. After that, he embarked on private buildings. In 2010, he designed flagship projects in France, such as a dance school in Lyon.

He describes his studio as a “place for experimentation”. 300 models a year are produced here. “Architecture is a strict discipline. There's a budget, a program, a site. You have to take a lot of things into account. He describes himself as “close to an entrepreneur”, because he has to think about the materials used, which are fundamental to the design process. Pierre Hebbelinck then decided to open the Fourre-tout publishing house, where he publishes books in French and translates them into English. It's a big European project, and most of them sell to non-French speakers. In a month, he'll be in Brazil to complete a book on a local architect.

A house was built in 7 hours

One of his greatest achievements is a house that was built in 7 hours in 2004. The idea was to offer minimal articulation. To complete this project, the engineering program had to be cracked to accept the calculation of certain parameters. A great deal of research went into this Walloon success story. Pierre Hebbelinck faced another challenge: the Bains du Centre in Brussels. “In a project like this, you feel you're working on an extensive collective societal contribution. An exciting project.”

Pierre Hebbelinck has worked on Mont Mémorial in Mons, the theater in Liège, a hospital in Antwerp, the Gaasbeek castle pavilion, a music school in Roissy. He brought his Belgian methods to France, where he was considered the “miracle man”. He wants to be familiar with all the methods used, from floor cleaning to tile cleaning, to bring his ideas to fruition. In Ireland, he had to renovate an old schoolhouse dating from 1835 into a private home. He tries to incorporate local skills into his designs. Although 80% of his projects are Belgian, with 60% in Wallonia, he has done others abroad, such as in Montevideo, Argentina.

However, Pierre Hebbelinck denounces the lack of recognition of the architect's profession, with ever-decreasing returns and increasing standards and complexity. In spite of this, if he were to give one piece of advice to future architects, it would be to “hold on to your convictions and values, while taking risks. You have to innovate, research and bring your practice to life. By setting ambitious goals and targets, they will transform companies. The desire to create must be nurtured and developed.”

Julie Hanssen