GROUNDED FABULATIONS
International Research Seminar– 1 & 2 October 2026
On the 1st and 2nd of October 2026, a series of (research-)artefacts, (research-)events, and (research-) educational environments will unravel, inviting for your imagination. The international Research Seminar will be fostered by the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture’s research cells Architecture & Wicked Matters + Radical Materiality & Luca School of Arts’ research cluster Pedagogy as Lover’s Craft.
Grounded Fabulations is set up by —in alphabetical order— Wim Goossens, Roel Kerkhofs, and Johan Liekens in the framework of ARTROOM. It functions as a platform for research-by-design and artistic research, situated at the intersection of Architecture, Interior Architecture and the Arts.
Grounded Fabulations pairs a being fabulated with a being grounded; architectural rumor, hearsay, and gossip with architectural fact. Highly heterogenous, inconsistent, and speculative in nature, the seminar intends to challenge you as an audience. Both literally and figuratively, it suggests an interest in what lies beneath, whether that is grasped in literal (among other: a material engagement with soil worlds) or figurative terms (among other: the shear interest in grounded gossip in the realms of (interior-)architecture and the arts).
Registration:
- Morning Lectures (Keynote by Hélène Frichot) (1 October, register here)
- Afternoon Mini-Lectures on and Activating Cabinets of Grounded Fabulations (1 October, register here)
- On 2 October, research cells Architecture & Wicked Matters and Radical Materiality are organising an international methodological workshop Ficto-Criticism Writing, led by Prof. Hélène Frichot,