'The great-grandfather, whom I never knew, has become more dear to me little by little, by reading what has been written about him and the circumstances in which he must have lived and worked. It has become the story of Jos, tracing his steps from the architect in the making to the one who is about the age I am now. At the same time, it has also become a looking back for myself.'

Architect Jos Viérin (1872-1949) played a prominent role in the reconstruction of the Destroyed Regions. After World War I, it was decided to reconstruct à l’identique the towns and villages on the front line that had been wiped out to the ground. This is why Diksmuide, Ypres, Nieuwpoort or Lampernisse still display such remarkable unity today.

Reconstruction architecture was long maligned, partly because of the influence of modernism. Philippe Viérin (noAarchitecten) explores the meaning of reconstruction. What drove his great-grandfather? Did reconstruction succeed or not? The search obliges him to clarify his own vision of architecture.

Philippe Viérin wrote this novel of letters as part of an artist-in-residency at the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres.