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Endpoint: Erik Balliu

created on: 23/02/2016
by: bob (9198)

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Erik H. Balliu, often spelled as Eric Balliu, (25 November 1936, Ghent, Belgium - 14 May 2012, Ghent, Ghent Belgium) was a Belgian architect.
Erik is a '59 graduate from the Royal Academy Of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent.
By 1966 he had already seen the realization of some thirty family houses and started to work on public projects like the Saint Macharius Street school in Ghent and even a complete 40 summer houses holiday project in Cagliari on the island of Sardinia.
In 1967 he founded BARO (Bureau voor Architectuur en Ruimtelijke Ordening) together with Johan Baele and they would develop a hundred private houses in the following years.
In 1969 he joined the staff at the Royal Academy Of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent, renamed to Higher Institute Of Architecture (HAIS) in 1970, and combined this function with the BARO work.
He would leave this productive agency in 1978 to become a full time teacher at the KASK in Ghent.
Erik returned to the profession in 1988 with the foundation of AAROS and kept teaching at the HAIS until its closure in 1991.
AAROS would work on projects like the Ghent Police Academy and the Ghent University Veterinary Faculty.
His style is referred to as 'brutalistic' and is very recognizable by the use of 'brutal' materials like concrete, naked bricks, concrete blocks, visible beams, pipes, wiring, thick wool carpet and the absolute absence of material that 'hides' those structural elements like plaster or ceiling coverings.
Rather than 'cutting up' walls to hide wiring in it, he would leave them visible or incorporate switches and wires in the wooden door frames.
The social aspect and function of his work was always very important to him and near the end of his life he would join the Vooruitgroep, a group defining itself as left democratic.