Lucien Kroll

Lucien Kroll (13 March 1927 – 1 August 2022) was a Belgian architect known for his projects involving participation by the future inhabitants of the buildings.

Biography

Kroll was born in Brussels on 13 March 1927. After obtaining his degree in architecture at La Cambre in 1951, Kroll worked together with architect Charles Vandenhove for several years. Later on he started his own practice Atelier Kroll together with his wife Simone. He has realized more than 100 projects⁠.

Critic of the authoritarian relationship between architect and user, Kroll showed a keen interest in participatory architecture and explored a specific way of practising architecture, inspired by people’s differences and spontaneity. His specific view on achitecture is reflected in his projects, including La Mémé and underground station Alma in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, a residental housing complex in Auderghem, and many more.⁠

La Mémé

His most famous work is La Mémé - the building complex for the Medical Faculty at the University of Louvain, Belgium, from 1970 to 1976. With precedent experiences in participatory architecture, Kroll was selected for the realization of the complex.

These buildings "aroused widespread controversy in the early 1970s (and even today), their fragmented and improvisational appearance— the result of a deliberate participatory design process— in stark contrast to the adjacent massive and repetitive hospital, the embodiment of a centralized bureaucracy." Overall, the public pleads to erase most of the buildings.

Selected Works

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Further reading

• Muriel Emmanuel, Contemporary Architects. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980.