I do not know the man personally. Did. I did not know the man personally. I never even met him. Yet, learning about Jo Crepain passing away did make me shiver for a second.
Crepain was one of the most important (postmodern) architects in Belgium. Reading about his work and being confronted with his designs always lifted my spirits in some way. In an often uninspired surrounding, where run-of-the-mill architecture rules, that is not an easy thing to do.
For those who are not all that familar with his work: he is famous for house De Wachter in ’s Gravenwezel, a Watertower in Antwerp and many other projects, including office buildings for Telindus as well as our new campus building at Kantienberg in Ghent, into which our department is moving in September.
Apart from that, Crepain was important in the first steps in sustainable building design (Renson office building) and a contributor to Last call for planet Earth, a documentary on ecological building.
58 years old: imagine the great things he still could have done. One thing is for sure: our country has lost a man with vision, something our often ugly land- and cityscapes so desparately need...
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