Research session at CIVA in Brussels, consultation of IFLA documents, © Ulrike Krippner
Workshop 1
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Dates: 2–3 February 2023
Host: CIVA (Ursula Wieser Benedetti, Eric Hennaut, and colleagues)
The CIVA foundation in Brussels includes a museum, an archive and a library for architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning. A tour through the CIVA collection and archive, which holds a significant collection of archival works from architecture and landscape architecture in Belgium, was part of the first workshop.
Archives as a collective memory for garden restoration
The workshop participants visited the exhibition “PICTURESQUE: Jules Buyssens” with the curator Ursula Wieser Benedetti at the CIVA Foundation and the gardens of the Van Buuren villa in Uccle. The Van Buuren Gardens were designed successively by the Belgian landscape architects Jules Buyssens (in 1924) and René Pechère (in 1969). Recently the gardens were restored (2009–12, 2018–19) by landscape architect Anne-Marie Sauvat, based on a preliminary historical study. Sauvat did in-depth research of archival materials like photos, the original ground plan, documents about plant purchases for the gardens, which were held at CIVA, and information from horticultural magazines of the time as well as excavations and observations of the site. This example shows the relevance of archives and the use of archival materials for garden restoration and conservation projects.
Discover the history of garden restoration: The picturesque garden of the Museum van Buuren
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vL7b0BUWa8, © Musée Van Buuren
Archives as a collective memory for the profession’s history
CIVA is the official archivist for IFLA Europe, so this was a great opportunity to conduct research on archival holdings connected with the international federation. Each workshop participant studied records related to his or her country. Archival documents are scattered across various archives owing to the international nature of IFLA. Thus, the search for documents continued in the archives of the NELA members, and these materials were collected for further investigation — with a particular focus on the founding of IFLA in 1948 — at the next workshop in Reading (UK).