Anyone visiting the websites of young architects and collectives cannot fail to notice the ambiguous self-images and apparent contradictions in their practice descriptions. But even more fundamental than that is the ambiguity of their fledgling oeuvres. We examine a few practices that, at first glance, could not be more different from each other.

On 20 January 2022, engineer-architect and visual artist Jolien Naeyaert will speak to an audience seated at a long row of colourful tables on the asphalt square in front of De Singel in Antwerp. She has been asked to reflect on what it means to be a young architect in response to a new exhibition series ¹. Her invitation contains a nod to Maarten Delbeke, who in 2005 wondered aloud on the same site whether Kersten Geers and David Van Severen, the first participants in the exhibition series 35m3 Young Architecture, are now young or fresh ². Or to Jo Crepain, who in 1988, on behalf of 28 angry young men ³ and protested against the non-existent opportunities for young designers in front of four ministers at the vernissage of Young Architects in Belgium. A quarter of a century later, Marie-José Van Hee, the only angry young woman on the square, listens attentively to Naeyaert’s words: ‘In addition to a plea for doubt, I make a plea for contradiction: can I be both a woman and a man? Sometimes left, sometimes right? An engineer, architect and artist at the same time? Sometimes Western, sometimes Eastern? Both rural and urban? Sometimes young, sometimes old? Flemish, Walloon and Brussels at the same time? Sometimes intellectual, sometimes emotional? Determined, then doubtful? Sometimes virtual, sometimes physical? Slow and fast. Alert and dreamy? Neither north nor south? Innovative and melancholic? Building then, not now. […]”⁴ 1 See https://www.vai.be/projecten/tafelzetting 2 Maarten Delbeke, ‘Young or fresh?’ in: Paul Vermeulen, Maarten Delbeke, Christophe Van Gerrewey et al., Modern Times: Texts on Architecture, WZW Editions & Productions, 2007. 3 Open letter to Ministers De Wael, D’Hondt, Geens, Olivier and anyone else involved in construction and renovation in any way’, S/AM archive, Flemish Architecture Institute Collection. 4 Error. Errance. Eros was written and recited by Jolien Naeyaert on the occasion of the opening of ‘Tafelzetting #0. Laura Muyldermans’ (21/01 – 06/03/2022, Flemish Architecture Institute and De Singel, Antwerp) and published in a revised version on the A website on 9 March 2022. https://www.a-plus.be/nl/opinie/error-errance-eros/