It is with great sadness that we announce that Professor Harold Fallon (°1977), ir. Architect, PhD, co-founder of the architectural firm AgwA in Brussels, professor in the field of architecture and design at KU Leuven and Dean’s Visiting Associate Professor at Columbia University New York, passed away on Monday 20 July 2026.
After his PhD in architectural practice (RMIT, 2013), he supported and guided architects who start their research from their design practice. He was one of the backbones of practice-based research within the section Architecture & Design of the Department of Architecture. As a co-founder of the interuniversity research group Architecture In Practice he was co-editor and organizer of the book series ‘In Practice’, of the journal ‘Practices in Research’ and of the conferences of the same name. Since 2018, he has been a partner of the multidisciplinary and community-based project ‘Surviving Memory in Post War El Salvador’. With these realisations, Harold played a very important and leading role in strengthening the interaction between architectural practice and research. His academic research testifies to a deep interest in what practice in architecture essentially is and which authentic knowledge can be produced in it.
His work as a designer, researcher, lecturer and author gained international recognition. At the beginning of 2026, the architectural firm Agwa, in collaboration with architects jan de vylder inge vinck, was the first Belgian project to receive the Mies van der Rohe Award, the European prize for contemporary architecture, with the transformation of the Palais des Expositions (Chapex) in Charleroi.
Harold was a highly valued colleague at our faculty. As a designer, teacher and thinker, he was strongly committed to architectural education and architecture. With his open-mindedness, his striking observations and his often disarming humour, he knew how to connect people and give them direction. With his energy, his commitment and his warm collegiality, he has left a lasting impression on our faculty, the department and on all those who worked with him.
Harold’s passing touches us all deeply. On behalf of the faculty and the department, we offer our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones. His work, teaching, research, and generosity will continue to inspire our community and the broader architectural field.
You can share your words of condolences and your memories of Harold via this online mourning register.
On behalf of the Faculty and the Department of Architecture, Sint-Lucas Campus, KU Leuven.
- Please find here the tribute by Hülya Ertas on the website of the Flanders Architecture Institute.
- Read the article in De Standaard (Dutch)
- Read the In Memoriam by Columbia GSAPP.