Masterthesis | 2016

From today’s architectural debates a new notion is emerging. As a reaction to an architecture that is always in search for superlatives (more amazing, more innovative, etc.), a lot of architects start to call for a more long-lasting, discrete and quiet architecture.

This thesis explores the notion of normality in architecture and tries to provide insights as regards to what this notion actually covers. To study this notion, it was chosen to explore two books from major architects of modern and contemporary architecture, who, with a hundred years apart, militated for this new architecture : the manifest Contribution à une théorie de l’architecture from Auguste Perret and the monograph Atelier Kempe Thill from the two German architects André Kempe and Oliver Thill. This research will first allow us to understand the relation to the norm that those architects have, first by studying what led them to this question, then by analysing their theory more generally and finally by reading again their works through the prism of normality. In a second time, this thesis studies the different factors of normality through the theories of Auguste Perret and Atelier Kempe Thill, namely: the attention to construction techniques, the strategic use of traditions, the economy of means and control of the budget, the lasting quality of the building, the attachment to rationalist values and the indifference to the program.

This enables to deliver a synthetic vision of normal architecture, merging the ideas of Auguste Perret and Atelier Kempe Thill, and to understand the diversity and the deepness of this subject.

Tutor : Thierry Decuypere.