David Chipperfield

Lunch with an Architect is intended as a forum for reflection and discussion to improve the quality of architecture in Brussels.

Through 3 meetings a year, Lunch with an Architect, in cooperation with Flagey, provides the real estate world with a window on the major contemporary events in the world of architecture, the more specifically Belgian issues, and the emblematic projects under way. 

David Chipperfield is the master planner and architect of many of the world’s most prestigious cultural and commercial projects, from the extension and refurbishment of the Neues Museum in Berlin (2009) and the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri (completed in 2013) to his most recent, transformational refurbishment of the Royal Academy’s Burlington House and the adjacent Burlington Gardens site into one connected cultural campus.

Recognized for his prestigious cultural projects, David Chipperfield has not abandoned “day-to-day” construction. He is endeavouring for an architectural culture based on common values: erudition, responsibility and reflection.

Eschewing the seductions of flamboyant, statement architecture, his sculptural, often understated interventions seem to work all the more effectively to improve and enhance the function as well as the experience of the original buildings. Architecture should not exist on its own. There is no reason for it to exist as an independent thing in itself, except for the glory of the architect.

His work is characterized by his mastery of simplicity and proper use of raw materials. While his new build structures may lack the bling of his fellow starchitects, but through form, materials and character they channel something of the qualities and aspirations of their locations, drawing affection and popularity from locals and visitors alike (the Turner Contemporary in Margate and the Hepworth Wakefield, in particular).

With offices in Berlin, London, Milan and Shanghai, David Chipperfield is not averse to creating large luxury office and apartment blocks, but really comes into his own with culturally and historically sensitive buildings, such as the Inagawa cemetery chapel and visitor centre in Hyogo, Japan (2017). He is in mid refurbishment of Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, which is due to reopen in 2020.

Flagey, F()rum