Joseph Moutschen



Joseph Moutschen (18 March 1895 at Jupille, Belgium – 22 December 1977 at Jupille), was a Modernist Belgian architect.

Biography
Moutschen entered the Liège Académie des Beaux-Arts at the age of nine. He received his diploma in 1917 and entered the Association des Architectes de Liège in 1923. He became a professor, then director of the Académie de Beaux-Arts de Liège from 1948 to 1960. Moutschen designed a number of projects around Liège characterized by a pragmatic approach and an extreme sobriety of style. He is most remembered for the Albert I Memorial on the Albert Canal at Liège, built in the form of a lighthouse.

Moutschen was a founding member of the International Union of Architects and a member of its executive committee in 1948. He was president of the Belgian Fédération Royale des Architects until 1959.

Projects

 * The Pont-barrage de Monsin at Liège, 1930
 * Institute of Civil Engineering at Val-Benoît, 1937, on the quai Banning at Liège, in the Bauhaus style of Walter Gropius.
 * Jules Seeliger Surgical Institute, rue Jonfosse at Liège (1936–1939)
 * "Aérogare 58" at the Brussels Airport, Zaventem, in collaboration with Georges Bontinck de Gand and Maxime Brunfaut, 1958
 * Albert I Memorial, monument at the entry to the Albert Canal at Liège, esplanadeand park inaugurated 30 July 1939. Sculptors were Louis Dupont. The 42 m tower is topped by a lighthouse, with a sculpture of Belgian King Albert I.
 * Institute of Civil Engineering, on the quai Banning along the Meuse

Other buildings

 * Wandre school
 * Jupille scholl
 * Romsée school, 1959
 * The majority of the pumping stations for the Association Intercommunale pour le Démergement et l'Épuration of Liège
 * L'hôtel de Ville de Jemeppe avec B. Sélerin et J. Mullenaerts.
 * La Salle Prevert, Jupille
 * Fontaine Charlemagne, sculptor; Oscar Berchmans.
 * Garden city of Tribouilet, 1922. Executed for the International Exposition of 1930, a collection of inexpensive houses in a variety of styles by architects including Moutschen, Louis Herman de Koninck, Victor Bourgeois and Fernand Bodson.
 * Cité des Cortils (1925–1935)
 * "Gallo-Roman" town, Jupille
 * "Héros of Rabosée" Monument at Wandre, A. Fivet, statuary, F. Close, sculptor
 * House of the architect, 40 Rue Jean-Jaures Jupille, 1932
 * Monument to the Belgian Repression of Grâce-Berleur, 1952
 * Mi-la-Ville footbridge at Jupille

Publications

 * Souvenirs sur Frank Lloyd Wright, Cité et Tekhne 10 November 1931
 * BATIR, 15 July 1935, Issue dedicated to Joseph Moutschen, Paris 1935
 * Université de Liège, Institute of Civil Engineering

Family
His brother Jean Moutschen (1900–1951), was also an architect. His brother Michel Moutschen (1923–1947) was a war correspondent for the Associated Press, killed by a sniper in Vietnam. His son Jean Moutschen-Dahmen (1929–2001) was Professor Emeritus of fundamental genetics at the University of Liège.