Document types
The CIVA Foundation library and archives service give you access to a great wealth of documents. The software allows you to target one or several document types, the nature of which we are setting out below.
Books
The CIVA library possesses a rich collection of almost 50000 ancient and recent works on architecture, urbanism, engineering, the history of towns, landscape architecture, gardens and urban ecosystems.
You will find a wide variety of publications: monographs, brochures, reports, academic studies, exhibition catalogues. The “rare books collection” also includes many collections of rare Belgian and foreign plates.
The library has a conservation mission. Its collection has been built up thanks to numerous donations from architects. It has a very extensive historical fonds that is unique in Belgium.
Periodicals
The library has an exceptional collection of journals on architecture, urbanism, the applied arts, landscape architecture and ecology dating from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries with some 3000 titles from Belgium, Europe and the rest of the world.
You will find a list of them on the page Journals.
Documentation folders
About 5000 documentation folders held at the library contain diverse documentation on Belgian and foreign architects, Belgian municipalities and various themes related to architecture.
In them you can find:
- Press articles and photocopies of journal articles of the time
- Biographical information and obituaries
- Ephemera (exhibition leaflets, postcards, etc.)
- Photocopies of archive documents (plans, administrative documents)
- Correspondence with researchers on the subject
The subjects of the documentation folders are listed in the catalogue. We possess two distinct collections that are soon to be merged into one: the AAM collection (CIVA Foundation, Ixelles) and the Sint-Lukasarchief collection (in Schaerbeek).
Promotional material
The CIVA library possesses two collections of promotional material:
- Commercial catalogues and prospectuses on construction materials and interior design.
Coverage: from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1980s - Technical and commercial documentation from Philippe Samyn. This consists of recent technical and commercial documentation covering the years from 1980 to around 2010.
These two collections have not yet been fully incorporated in the catalogue. Please contact us in advance if you want to consult them.
Archives
The CIVA collections consist of archives and various productions on the practice of architecture, landscape architecture and gardens together with reflections on urban ecosystems in Belgium. They include a very wide range of supports: graphs, photographic archives, written material but also models, audio and audiovisual archives, furniture and textiles covering principally the 19th and 20th centuries in Belgium.
