TIAFF 2025 WTC A Love Story

In the 1970s, the populous neighbourhood around Brussels-North Station was destroyed to make room for ‘a modernist dream with the two World Trade Centre towers as its crown jewels. The project failed, leaving the towers and surrounding area largely abandoned. In 2017, the private owners and politicians joined forces to redynamise the area. Fearing that history might repeat itself, Lietje Bauwens and Wouter De Raeve decided to enter the debate by making a film with the actors that claim a voice in the transition: politicians, an activist, the private owner, designers and others. Taking the WTC towers as its object, the film investigates contemporary urban redevelopment processes, and traces the influx of new ecological and participatory ideas and their actual impact. WTC A Love Story uses fiction as a method to explore whose stories enter the stage when the process of political representation is accelerated.

The film will be introduced by a lecture by Reinier de Graaf. Reinier is an architect, architectural theorist, urban planner, and author of the books Four Walls and a Roof -The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, The Masterplan, and Architect, Verb. In 1996 he joined OMA, where he is responsible for building and masterplanning projects in Europe, and the Middle East. Reinier co-founded AMO, the think tank of OMA, and he has overseen AMO’s increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning. Reinier has taught at various institutions and curated exhibitions such as Public Works at the Venice Biennale 2012.