Architects Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem champion the autonomy of an architectural order, but also explore its boundaries via a confrontation with plastic art. This book includes a letter form Juan Munoz, a conversation between Farshid Moussavi and a list of all the architects' work.

Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem have been active as architects in the Belgian city of Ghent since 1975. Their work moves between the local traditions of Flemish building and cosmopolitanism acquired, in the main, as a result of their collaborations with international artists on exhibition and museum spaces. Their 35 years experience is enough to produce a mature body of exceptional work attentive to context and local technique, yet one aimed beyond the borders of their country. Their buildings address different typologies, from cultural buildings, spaces for art and public spaces to conversions of old offices, in which painstaking construction with traditional materials and schemes that are simple in layout and of great spatial richness inscribe their work within a certain central European tradition of the ordinary. This number of 2G presents 18 projects by Robbrecht en Daem, 15 of them built, which extend from public spaces for various Belgian cities (Antwerp, Ghent and Knokke) and urban amenities of major importance like Bruges Concert Hall to small projects inserted in the landscape, like a cabin in the woods, a pair of observation towers and a dovecote. The works are preceded by two critical essays by British architect William Mann - currently also Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London - and by Iwona Blazwick, and are rounded off by thoughts from Paul Robbercht himself about the relationship between architecture and painting

Paul Robbrecht has composed an image essay in 'Choreo' in which architecture, dance and text interact. A book as choreography, and also as a chorus dance. People who move, dance along geometrical patterns have always fascinated him: "The dance has flown in me." The charged emptiness of a space only comes alive through a dancing body. Architecture does not exist if it is not experienced. Central in 'Choreo' is the circular text of Wim Cuyvers, in which a young dealer creates invisible patterns on a square, which subsequently form a pentagram. Around this text, images and designs are placed, which bring in noticeable circles. Between intro and coda with photos by Maarten Vanden Abeele are sketches for a dance theater that originated from a conversation and fascination for the dancer and choreographer, the Louie number series, the 9-color rose and so on. Two paintings from the Renaissance form rest breaks and show Robbrecht's fascination with perspective and inspired forms.0Architecture and dance long for each other.