First Flemish Master Builder Bob Van Reeth has passed away

Bob Van Reeth, who signed his work as an architect with bOb Van Reeth, passed away on 30 September at the age of 82. Van Reeth was best known as the first Flemish Master Builder (‘Vlaamse Bouwmeester’), from January 1998 to 2005, after which he was succeeded by Marcel Smets.

Van Reeth was born in Temse in 1943. He studied architecture at Sint-Lucas Brussels and designed his first homes in Mechelen and Kalmthout in the 1960s. His first public commissions followed in the 1970s, including the well-known Onze-Lieve-Vrouwecollege in Antwerp (1977). In 1982, he founded the ‘Architecten Werk Groep’ (AWG, the Architect Work Group), with which he realised various high-profile projects. In Antwerp, these include the ‘Zuiderterras’, the ‘Huis van Roosmalen’ (‘The house with the black and white stripes’) and the theatre boat ‘De Ark’. Other notable projects include the renovation of the national football stadium at the Heizel in Brussels, which began in September 1994, and later a memorial and documentation centre for the Holocaust and human rights in Mechelen, directly opposite the existing Dossin barracks (2012).

The bouwmeester is a quality director for public space and architecture, ensuring that Belgium not only builds, but builds well.