L’Equerre, a Liège modern architecture review

The review L’Equerre has stamped its mark on the architecture and town and regional planning of the Liège area. Standing up for modern ideas, a long way distant from those in force in its era, it is acknowledged as one of the principal reviews of architecture and town planning in the period between the two World Wars, as much on an international as on a regional and national level. Sébastien Charlier, a doctoral student at the University of Liège’s Department of the History of Art and Architecture of the Contemporary Era, has overseen the academic advisory work for the republication of the periodical’s issues in a single volume.

The sole avant-garde review dedicated to architecture to be published in Liège, L’Equerre is a privileged witness to the architectural context and mode of production of the interwar period. Despite the general dynamic publishing output of the 1930s, L’Equerre seems to be one of the few perennial reviews of its epoch. It was published from 1928 to 1939, whilst the editorial committees of the majority of other periodicals petered out after a few publications.

Apart from its obvious historical value, the republication of L’Equerre bears witness to a desire to reunite a collection which had been dispersed throughout several of the nation’s archive centres. ‘Be it in Liège, in libraries which specialise in architecture, or internationally, nobody any longer had the complete collection of the review in their possession. We wanted to bring together the different parts, which we found in three main centres,’ explains Sébastien Charlier, a doctoral student at the University of Liège’s Department of the History of Art and Architecture of the Contemporary Era, and the co-ordinator of this search. The majority of the collection, in other words 80%, was taken from the University of Liège’s Science and Technology Library. The remainder originates from the architecture libraries at La Cambre (ULB) and Sint-Lukas (Brussels). In total, 107 issues and around 1,200 pages were reproduced in facsimile form, a project initiated and published by Fourre-Tout publishers, of the Pierre Hebbelinck and Pierre de Wit Architecture workshop, and produced by the Liège ‘Société Libre d’Emulation’. The academic advisory committee was made up of Jean-Louis Cohen, Joseph Abram and Emmanuel Debruyne (1).

From subversion to institutionalisation

On its creation named ‘Review of the Liège Academy of Fine Arts students’, L’Equerre was launched in 1928 by five students at the Liège Academy of Fine Arts. The group was made up of the architects Emile Parent, Albert Tibaux, Edgard Klutz, Victor Rogister and Yvon Falise. They were joined later by Jean Moutschen and Paul Fitschy. ‘In its early days the review was essentially made up of critiques of the Liège Academy of Fine Arts de Liège. A good many of the texts were jokes and gibes at the expense of the Professors. The review was also made up of humorous pages in which the authors made fun of their contingent. But the most interesting aspect was the publication of seminal texts of the modern movement, texts by Berlage, Van de Velde, and Le Corbusier. Whilst the Academy was teaching the students the historical models and asking them to create extremely decorative opera houses, court houses or museum , these students were offering an alternative teaching: the foundational models and texts of the modern movement.’

In 1931, when its founders had completed their studies, the contents of L’Equerre broke away from the Academy of Fine Arts. The publication of foundational texts and reflections on questions of town and regional development intensified. The main trends of current developments in architecture at a local, European and global level were analysed to the benefit of a commitment to an innovative architecture and a radical critique of Liège architecture. ‘They constantly complained that Liège remained behind in relation to modern trends in architecture.’ Little by little the group’s members weaved themselves a network, not only with the main modern Belgian architects (Victor Bourgeois, Louis-Herman De Koninck, etc.), but very quickly with the international world as well and in particular with the CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture), where all the theorists of the modern movement came together (Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, etc.). In 1935, the members of L’Equerre became CIAM secretaries for Belgium, putting themselves in the front line in relation to this international movement. Numerous ideas mobilized at CIAM congresses were reproduced and interpreted in L’Equerre, a genuine propaganda magazine for the modern movement on a national level.

Progressively, whilst the review gained in maturity, its founders themselves began to work as architects. From 1935 they together created an architecture and town development agency in Liège, also called L’Equerre. The review then set about tackling more technical subjects. Thematic dossiers, linked to their reflections on the terrain, found their place in the periodical’s pages. ‘They for example established a study into the links architecture and town planning could foster with childhood, whilst they were working on producing a play area at Coronmeuse. They also carried out a study into the question of tenement housing whilst at the same time they were working on projects for housing for workers.’ The review did not restrict itself to architecture but analysed not only social questions but contemporary artistic developments, opening its columns to the painting of Fernand Steven, the sculpture of Idel Ianchelevici or the poetry of Georges Linze.

From 1936 the dissident group drew closer to power and its architectural output gained in importance. Jean Moutschen, a member of L’Equerre, was named Director of the City of Liège’s Architecture Service. During the same period Georges Truffaut became the Deputy Mayor of the Public Works Department and entrusted L’Equerre with major Liège urban projects. The militant architects thus carried out significant public and social housing works in the Liège basin.

A break with Liègeois architecture

Whilst in Liège an historically inspired architecture dominated, L’Equerre embodied the ideas of modernity, advocating a minimalist and functionalist style. Shorn of decorations, the architectural line supported by the architecture and town development agency played on the volumes and used industrial materials at cheap prices. Bang in the middle of the housing crisis the CIAM, for which L’Equerre was an intermediary, offered a ‘Minimum house’, at a fair price and without embellishments, breaking with the luxurious and bourgeois art deco and Fine Arts architecture which prevailed in the 1920s. This Minimum house also claimed itself as a response to the modern world, the spaces designed in particular having to facilitate a woman’s work in managing the household.

Employing these modern features, the Equerre Group architects produced numerous distinctive houses in Liège. Amongst the main constructions of the Liège architecture agency in the interwar period are the development of the ‘Plateau des Trixhes’ at Flémalle-Haute (from 1937), the  Reine Astrid play area at Coronmeuse (1939) and the Hollogne-aux-Pierres swimming baths (1937). The Group also contributed to the plans of the ensemble of the International Water Exhibition held in Liège in 1939. All these projects were characterised by their kinship with the modern movement and by their radical rejection of the architectural tradition established in Liège.

In 1939, when the Second World War broke out, the review ceased publication, having attained 107 issues. After 1945 there nevertheless continued to be a clamour for the group’s expertise. Working together with the University of Liège, the architecture and town development agency in particular carried out ‘The Survey’, a study focused on town and regional planning for the whole of the Liège region. The Liège Palais des Congrès (Convention Centre) (1956-58), the head offices of the ‘La Meuse’ newspaper (1960-62) or the preliminary studies for establishing the University of Liège at the Sart Tilman estate bear witness to the success of L’Equerre, which nonetheless went bankrupt in 1982.

An act of preservation for Liège heritage

In the aftermath of the agency going bankrupt a good proportion of its archives was lost. The republication of these 107 issues of Liège architecture involves safeguarding the memory of an architecture agency whose works made their mark on Liège heritage, but also the recognition of modern architecture in Wallonia. A precious source of information for art historians, architects and other heritage specialists.

To the reproduction in facsimile form of almost the entirety of the collection (only the first edition is missing) is added a critical analysis, translated into English and structured into five sections. The editorial and academic advisory committees entrusted five authors, Jean-Louis Cohen, Geoffrey Grulois, Hélène Jannière, Sébastien Martinez Barat and Sébastien Charlier, with the task of offering their perspective on the socio-economic context and the issues surrounding this publishing output of the interwar period. What was the architectural culture against which L’Equerre positioned itself? How did small towns such as Liège come to spread the theories of the modern movement? What kind of urban development is advocated by L’Equerre? How did avant-garde reviews draw closer to power? What are the stakes and the ambitions of fledgling architects who are today following the same path as the members of ‘L’Equerre’? All questions which will not be without interest for connoisseurs of Walloon architecture and heritage.

The marvellous publication and graphic design qualities produced by Fourre-Tout publishers also needs to be highlighted, Fourre-Tout having also taken on the responsibility for meeting the technical challenges of this monumental work, which has just received the 2012 Fernand Baudin Prize.

(1) Sébastien Charlier (edited.), L’Equerre Réédition intégrale – The Complete Edition 1928 – 1939, Liège, Editions Fourre-Tout, 2012. With articles by Jean-Louis Cohen, Sébastien Charlier, Geoffrey Grulois, Hélène Jannière and Sébastien Martinez Barat, Pierre Geurts and Pierre Hebbelinck.