Joseph Moutschen (18 March 1895 at Jupille, Belgium – 22 December 1977 at Jupille), was a Modernist Belgian architect.

Brussels Airport, Architects Joseph Moutschen, Maxime Brunfaut & Georges Bontinck, 1958
Pumping Station n°1 at Herstal.

Biography

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Moutschen entered the Liège Académie des Beaux-Arts at the age of nine. He received his diploma in 1917 and entered the Association des Architectes de Liège in 1923. He became a professor, then director of the Académie de Beaux-Arts de Liège from 1948 to 1960. Moutschen designed a number of projects around Liège characterized by a pragmatic approach and an extreme sobriety of style. He is most remembered for the Albert I Memorial on the Albert Canal at Liège, built in the form of a lighthouse.

Moutschen was a founding member of the International Union of Architects and a member of its executive committee in 1948. He was president of the Belgian Fédération Royale des Architects until 1959.

Projects

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  • The Pont-barrage de Monsin at Liège, 1930 [1][2]
  • Institute of Civil Engineering at Val-Benoît, 1937, on the quai Banning at Liège, in the Bauhaus style of Walter Gropius.
  • Jules Seeliger Surgical Institute, rue Jonfosse at Liège (1936–1939)
  • "Aérogare 58" at the Brussels Airport, Zaventem, in collaboration with Georges Bontinck de Gand and Maxime Brunfaut, 1958
  • Albert I Memorial, monument at the entry to the Albert Canal at Liège, esplanadeand park inaugurated 30 July 1939. Sculptors were Louis Dupont. The 42 metres (138 ft) tower is topped by a lighthouse, with a sculpture of Belgian King Albert I.[3]
  • Institute of Civil Engineering, on the quai Banning along the Meuse

Other buildings

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  • Wandre school
  • Jupille scholl
  • Romsée school, 1959
  • The majority of the pumping stations for the Association Intercommunale pour le Démergement et l'Épuration of Liège
  • L'hôtel de Ville de Jemeppe avec B. Sélerin et J. Mullenaerts.
  • La Salle Prevert, Jupille
  • Fontaine Charlemagne, sculptor; Oscar Berchmans.
  • Garden city of Tribouilet, 1922. Executed for the International Exposition of 1930, a collection of inexpensive houses in a variety of styles by architects including Moutschen, Louis Herman de Koninck, Victor Bourgeois and Fernand Bodson.
  • Cité des Cortils (1925–1935)[4]
  • "Gallo-Roman" town, Jupille
  • "Héros of Rabosée" Monument at Wandre, A. Fivet, statuary, F. Close, sculptor
  • House of the architect, 40 Rue Jean-Jaures Jupille, 1932
  • Monument to the Belgian Repression[5] of Grâce-Berleur, 1952
  • Mi-la-Ville footbridge at Jupille[6]

Publications

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  • Souvenirs sur Frank Lloyd Wright, Cité et Tekhne 10 November 1931
  • BATIR, 15 July 1935, Issue dedicated to Joseph Moutschen, Paris 1935
    • Université de Liège, Institute of Civil Engineering

Family

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His brother Jean Moutschen (1900–1951), was also an architect. His brother Michel Moutschen (1923–1947) was a war correspondent for the Associated Press, killed by a sniper in Vietnam.[7] His son Jean Moutschen-Dahmen (1929–2001) was Professor Emeritus of fundamental genetics at the University of Liège.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ Pierre Frankignoulle, L'Université de Liège dans sa ville (1817–1989 ). Une étude d'histoire urbaine, Bruxelles, 2005.
  2. ^ Vide aussi Les cahiers de l'Urbanisme n° 73, septembre 2009 pp52-56
  3. ^ Émile Coenen, La forteresse de l'île Monsin, archives mises en dépôt au C.L.H.A.M.
  4. ^ Liège, publié par Thérèse Cortembos
  5. ^ vide: question royale: le drame de Grâce-Berleur de 1950
  6. ^ souvent décrite par les autochtones comme un vstige du myen-âge , com. pers. de son petit fils
  7. ^ "AP reporter killed". Waco Times-Herald. Associated Press. 10 February 1947. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
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