Detail Makes the Difference

Stephan Petermann and Aurélie Hachez join their fellow architects and critics to discuss whether detail could be the key to ‘difference’.

Guest editor and architect Aurélie Hachez (AHA) will speak with architect Job Floris (Monadnock) about details as a possible key to “making a difference” in Europe’s increasingly uniform architecture. The discussion will be moderated by Eline Dehullu (A+ Architecture in Belgium) and introduced by Stephan Petermann, editor of Architecture in the Netherlands.

This event brings together architects who grew up in an integrated Europe to reflect on how they push back against the growing European sameness described by Stephan Petermann in his essay “Are We Still Relevant?”, published in the Dutch Architecture in the Netherlands yearbook 2024/2025.

In the themed issue that architect Aurélie Hachez edited for A+ Architecture in Belgium, she focuses on “the small, the precise, the careful: the constructive detail as a thought process and as a bearer of meaning, beauty, and craftsmanship.”

Architecture in the Netherlands

For almost 40 years, Architecture in the Netherlands has provided an indispensable overview, with independent editors presenting unique projects completed in the previous year that describe developments in Dutch architecture.

A+ Architecture in Belgium

The Belgian architecture magazine A+ Architecture in Belgium shapes and fuels discourse on contemporary Belgian architecture, urban planning and landscape design, reflecting on the architect’s ever-changing role and responsibilities.

This discussion has been organised in partnership with nai010 publishers and A+ Architecture in Belgium, as part of the Exchange in Practice programme.

Photo credits: 1. AHA – Aurélie Hachez Architecte, Jubel, Halle, 2019. Photo © Philippe Braquenier. 2. BC architects, Manchester, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek.