Axel Fisher

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Fisher
Axel
associate professor / chargé de cours

Université libre de Bruxelles
Faculté d'Architecture La Cambre Horta - CP248/01
Pl. Flagey, 19
1050 - Bruxelles

Axel Fisher (tenured associate professor, part-time) is a scholar, educator and editor, trained as an architect and urban designer at the ISACF-La Cambre (Brussels) and the Politecnico di Milano (2007). His research interests are broadly focused on the mutual relationships between architectural design, urban form, landscape and geography. More specifically, he has conducted researching on 20th century rural planning and village design ever since his PhD thesis dedicated to Patterns of Rural Settlement & Architecture in the Jewish Colonization of Mandate Era Palestine (2011, Politecnico di Milano, superv. Cristina Pallini). He conducted research at the Technion Institute of Technology (Haïfa, Israel: 2010), at the Université de Liège (Belgium: 2011-2013), and at the TU-Berlin's Habitat Unit - chair of international urbanism (Germany: 2019). Since 2011, he lectures landscape theory and landscape design at the School of Architecture La Cambre-Horta (ULB – Université libre de Bruxelles), in both bachelor and master programs in architecture and in landscape architecture, and supervises PhD dissertations.
Since 2013, he is the editor-in-chief of the French/English speaking scholarly journal CLARA Architecture / Recherche, and is a regular reviewer for international journals such as: «Journal of Architecture», «Landscape Research», «Belgéo – revue belge de géographie», «Planning Perspectives».
From 2017 to 2019, he coordinated the HABITER Study center for Development, Territory and Landscapes. Within this frame, he convened in 2018 the international conference "Through Local Eyes - Place-based approaches to emerging architectural, urban design and planning challenges in Africa and the Global South" which took place at the United Nation's Economic Conference for Africa's conference center in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. He joined hortence in 2020.
From 2015 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral researcher fully funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research – FNRS, conducting a project entitled ARA: Architecture et réforme agraire / Architecture and Land Reform. Within this frame, Prof. Fisher supported prof. Luisa Moretto in the management and coordination of the MODSCAPES project. He was also awarded a WBI.World excellency postdoctoral scholarship for a secondment period he spent at the HABITAT-Unit in Berlin (January-September 2018), joining the HABITAT-Unit in Berlin as a part-time MODSCAPES post-doctoral fellows under the supervision of Dr. Vittoria Capresi.

• Moretto, L., Faldi, G., & Fisher, A. (eds., 2020, forthcoming). African Cities Through Local Eyes. Experiments in Place-Based Architectural and Urban Design, Springer (Urban Studies Series). • Fisher, A., Bell, S., Capresi, V., Pallini, C., & Maia, H., (eds., 2020, forthcoming). 20th Century Modernist Rural Landscapes, Routledge. • Fisher, A., Pallini, C., & Korolija, A. (eds., 2019, forthcoming). CLARA Architecture/Recherche, N°8 : Modernism Outbound. Architecture and rural modernisation, Bruxelles : Editions de la Faculté d’Architecture La Cambre-Horta de l’ULB. • Cane, F., Fisher, A., & Strauven, I. (eds., 2019). Enter the Modern Landscape - Exhibition Catalogue, (coll. BOZAR-Architecture) Bruxelles : Palais des Beaux-Arts. • Vancutsem, D., Fisher, A., & Martineau, J. (eds., 2019). Demain, les Etangs d’Ixelles, Bruxelles : Editions de la Faculté d’Architecture La Cambre-Horta de l’ULB.. • Fisher, A., Capresi, V., Bell, S., Pallini, C., & Maia, H., (eds., 2019, avril). Modernism, Modernisation and the Rural Landscape: Proceedings of the MODSCAPES_conference & Baltic Landscape Forum (Tartu: Estonian National Museum, 11-13 June 2018), SHS-Web of Conferences, n°63 (EDP Sciences, France). • Fisher, A., Capresi, V. (2019). Modernist Rural Landscapes’ New Communities and their New Identities.: Examples from the project MODSCAPES – Modernist Reinventions of the Rural Landscape. In Identitätsstiftung durch Baukultur und Kulturlandschaften (Jahrestagung des Deutschen Forums Kulturlandschaft: 12), BHU - Bund Heimat und Umwelt, Bonn. • Fisher, A. (2015). Rurality, a playground for design ? : Architectural design issues in the definition of the forms and features of the Zionist rural village, 1870–1929. In P. Versteegh & S. Meeres (Eds.), Alterrurality, : exploring representations and ‘repeasantations’ (1 ed., pp. 171–203). Fribourg (CH) : ARENA Architectural Research Network. • Fisher, A. (2014). Le paysage dans le boudoir. : Un entretien à sept voix. In M. Cohen & C. Dassonville (Eds.), Les centres sportifs ADEPS : Froidchapelle / Neufchateau (pp. 76–85). Bruxelles : Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, Cellule Architecture. (VISIONS. Architectures Publiques, 10). • Fisher, A. (2014). Promised Lands : inner colonisation in 20th century Mediterranean history : Scientific report. (ESF Exploratory Workshop Scheme). • Fisher, A. (2014). Usi del futuro e della geografia nel Piano di sviluppo regionale della baia di Haifa (1925–1926) di Richard Kauffmann. Città e storia, 8(2), 405–428. • Fisher, A. (2013). Urbanisation sans urbanisme. Une histoire de la ‘ville diffuse’: by Bénédicte Grosjean, with a preface by Bernardo Secchi, Wavre, Mardaga, 2010 [Book review]. Planning perspectives, 28 (2), 333-335. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2013.774564 • Fisher, A., Goossens, M., Hautecler, P., & Occhiuto, R. (2012). Vers une politique active du patrimoine bâti dans le SDER nouveau. Les Cahiers de l’urbanisme, (81), 17–23. • Fisher, A. (2011). Le patrimoine bâti. In G. Géron (Ed.), Diagnostic territorial de la Wallonie (p. 287). Namur : SPW–DGO4.(CPDT).

As project coordinator / principal investigator:
• 2016-2019: MODSCAPES - Modernist reinventions of the rural landscape (www.modscapes.eu ), funded by HERA - Humanities in the European Research area's 3 Joint Research Programme "Uses of the Past". In collaboration with: Politecnico di Milano, CESAP/CEAA, TU-Berlin, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Docomomo international, Civilscape.
• 2019: The change of Hanoi’s periurban villages under the impact of metropolization. POP development aid project funded by ARES-Research and Higher Education Academy, In collaboration with NUCE (Vietnam) and ULiège.
• 2013: PROMISED LANDS, internal colonization in 20th century Mediterranean history (Sabaudia - Rome, Italy). Exploratory research workshop funded by ESF-European Science Foundation (Strasbourg).
As supervisor (completed):
• Denis Derijcke, 2017. Espaces de processus / Espaces d’analyses, description graphique de mécanismes géométriques compositionnels et de vocabulaires formels –la côte californienne vers 1980 : morceaux choisis. PhD dissertation, ULB, art of building and urban planning.
As chair of supervisory and Viva committee:
• Catalina Codruta Dobre (2013–2019). Urban Storm water management : possible catalyst for integrating «Water Sensivity». PhD dissertation, ULB, art of building and urban planning.
• Andrea Bortolotti (2014–2019). Questioning space in urban metabolism. Models and urban patterns for a sustainable flows management. PhD dissertation, ULB, art of building and urban planning.
As member of Viva committee:
• Yogan Muller, 2018. Paysage: de démarche en (dé)construction photographique. Géohistoire de l’image à l’aube de l’Anthropocène. (superv.: Danielle Leenarts), ULB Faculté de Philosophie et Sciences sociales / ENSAV La Cambre, PhD in «Art et Sciences de l’art».
• Giulia Tacchini, 2016. Demetra e Poseidone. Architetture dello scambio nelle metamorfosi dei paesaggi urbani di Ionia, Politecnico di Milano, ABC department, Doctoral school in architectural composition.
As supervisor (ongoing):
• Michele Tenzon (2016–). MODSCAPES: Michel Ecochard’s rural resettlement schemes in Morocco. ULB, art of building and urban planning.
As co-supervisor:
• Silvia Boca (2016–). MODSCAPES : Modern architecture and inner colonisation projects. Politecnico di Milano.
As member of supervisory committee:
• Paul Tambani Muzita (2013-), Les usages du foncier : ressources et facteurs de restructuration territoriale. Cas des périphéries sud–ouest de Kinshasa. (supervisors: Geoffrey Grulois, Gery Leloutre). ULB, art of building and urban planning.
• Alberto Squizzato (2018–). Diffuse Design and expert design in urban regeneration. (superv: Wouter Van Acker, Salvator-John Liotta) ULB, art of building and urban planning.