On 5 February 2019, Marc Dubois was awarded the Ultima Architecture 2018 prize. This Flemish cultural award is a fine recognition of the unique and pivotal role he has played in the Flemish architectural landscape since the 1980s. The jury rightly states that his pioneering role lies at the heart of the current success of Flemish architecture. His distinctive and headstrong approach, averse to academicism, has helped shape the DNA of Flemish architecture, grounded in craftsmanship and a rich interweaving of art and history.

Dubois graduated from Sint-Lucas Ghent in 1974, alongside Christian Kieckens, Marie-José Van Hee, Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem. Together, they developed a research-oriented approach to architectural morphology and typology, materiality and perception. Precise ‘seeing’ – as in observing and expressing this in a sublime spatiality – became the language that Dubois translated into words. Although he completed his internship with Marcel Molleman, he became a writer and critic. He specialised in the modern architecture of Gaston Eysselinck, Albert Van Huffel, Huib Hoste and Louis Herman De Koninck, and wrote about Luigi Snozzi’s rationalism and the Ticino school, the genius of craftsmanship in the work of Carlo Scarpa in Venice, the complex simplicity in the work of Álvaro Siza in Portugal, and Le Corbusier’s purism.