What do we remember, what will we remember in the future about Raymond Lemaire (1921-1997), a PhD in art history, a researcher and practitioner of restoration of monumental and historical sites? That he was a pioneer and a major figure in the postmodernist movement as regards urban renewal, or that he was “frighteningly addicted to the past”? Will Lemaire be thought of as a new Viollet-le-Duc, or as an “impostor” of the worst sort, incapable to boot of managing a financially credible project?
In an article (1) that is a prelude to her doctoral dissertation, Claudine Houbart rejects preconceived notions about this “charismatic and controversial” man. An architect and art historian, she is the first to explore in depth the rich archives of Raymond Lemaire – “a gold mine”, in her view. She put Lemaire’s archive in order, and then examined it in detail. The portrait of Lemaire and his work that results is full of nuances and contrasts.

“During my studies,” Claudine Houbart tells us, “I had a massively positive impression of the work of Raymond Lemaire. For example, I was fascinated by the impressive renovation of the Grand Béguinage of Louvain, which he directed alone after 1963; but there was also his role as a pioneer, the next year, in the production of the Venice Charter (1964) and his constant efforts to “re-animate” the ancient city.”

When she began her research in 2004, Houbart understood that she could not be satisfied with keeping Lemaire on a pedestal. Certainly, the man had an original and exceptional career, even outside universities where he was a brilliant teacher of art history (at both the KUL and the UCL). He was not an architect, nor a trained engineer, but his life was devoted to architecture, to restoration and urbanism, in Belgium and internationally. Claudine Houbart was obliged to study the “visions” of Lemaire, as well as the controversies to which those visions gave rise.

A tireless worker

Lemaire was co-author of the Venice Charter and co-founder of ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, which gave a new orientation to the movement for restoration of ancient cities during the 1960s. Lemaire also played an important role as a representative of Unesco, as regards the study and conservation of cultural heritage around the world: the temple of Borobudur (Indonesia), the Acropolis in Athens, the temple of Bassae (Greece), conservation of painted churches (Romania), restoration of the temple of Zeus in Jerash and at the Petra site (Jordan), and these are just some examples.

To get an impression of Lemaire’s breadth of work just in Belgium, we could cite these examples: about thirty churches and chapels, the chateaux of Heverlee, Ecaussinnes, Boitsfort, Feluy, the Ferme du Douaire in Ottignies and the Ferme Rose in Uccle… In addition to the renovation of the Grand Béguinage of Louvain (Flanders), which made Lemaire famous, we should also mention projects that involved the rue des Brasseurs (Namur), the Sainte-Anne and Saint-Géry neighbourhoods and the block containing the Museum of Modern Art (Brussels). And we should not forget the downtown projects in Courtrai and Mouscron, the Parijse Hallen in Bruges, etc.

Lemaire did not reject new construction, like the mechanical engineering classrooms and laboratories at Heverlee, the metro station of Kraainem, the church of Herne (to take some notable examples). And to top everything off, need we recall that it was Raymond Lemaire who imagined the new city of Louvain-la-Neuve, “escaping the dangers of the gigantism of Corbusier, of Chandigar or Brasilia, in order to preserve the essential part of a tradition” (Michel Woitrin, in the Biographie Nationale).

(1) Raymond Lemaire et les débuts de la rénovation urbaine à Bruxelles, Montréal, Revue d’histoire urbaine, 2012.