Museum Dr. Guislain
21 April - 30 September 2007

How rational is architecture? Is it not, even in the hands of the most renowned architects, subject to irrational actions and intuition? "Intuitive Architecture" is an exhibition on the intuitive, the irrational and the subconscious in architecture. We draw inspiration from our reading of La vie des Abeilles, La vie des Termites and La vie des Fourmis, dilettante, scientific books by the Ghent Nobel-prize winner in literature Maurice Maeterlinck, in which the author tries to reveal a relation between the instinctive, social conduct of insects - like the construction of termite hills - and the conscious/subconscious actions of humans.

The exhibition presents architectural constructions and urban development plans in drawings and scale-models created by outsider artists - such as psychiatric patients - alongside sketches by international architects. The sketches in question are the designers' first drafts that lay down the rough outlines of a building or a site. They remind us of the urge to get a hold on our living environment and the structure of our space. The drawings give unmistakable evidence of the subconscious and irrational elements involved in creation.