Geert Bekaert (B, born 1928), professor emeritus at the K.U. Leuven and the T.U. Eindhoven, is the éminence grise of Belgian architectural criticism. Between 1967 and 1989, he and Belgian director Jef Cornelis - a previous guest of Curating the Library - made various films for the Belgian public television company. These included the very first documentary on the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who has also been a guest speaker in this series. During the 1990s, Bekaert was chief editor of the architecture periodical Archis.
Bekaert has been the recipient of many awards, including the prestigious Rotterdam-Maaskant Prize (1988), an honorary doctorate from the University of Ghent and the Frank Devienne Lifetime Achievement Award (2002). His publication 'Architectuur zonder schaduw' (Architecture without shadows), which was published in 1988 by 010 of Rotterdam, is regarded as a key text in the field of heritage and the preservation of monuments. With the Ghent publishing house Ludion he has published monographs on Stéphane Beel, Bob van Reeth, Maarten Van Severen and Xaveer de Geyter. Bekaert's writings are collected in the series 'Verzamelde Opstellen' which so far consists of the following parts: 1) Stapstenen. 1950-1965, 2) Los in de ruimte. 1966-1970, 3) Hierlangs. 1971-1980 and 4) De Kromme Weg. 1981-1985.