Photographer
Julien Lanoo is a Belgian photographer. He looks at the architectural world with a deep understanding of its historical and social layers as well as the visible and intangible connections between nature, light and materiality. Lanoo’s photographic career has covered such topics and fields as architecture, design, social integration, urban transformations and their dwellers.
His work has been exhibited widely, including the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Cité de l’architecture in Paris, MAXXI in Rome, and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, among others. He co-authored, together with Julien de Smedt, the book ‘Built Unbuilt’ revisiting 16 years of JDSA’s work (2017), and has contributed to monographic works such as ‘TANK’ (2018) and ‘Novartis Campus – Pavillon’(2023). Recent books include ‘Khudi Bari – a social project by Marina Tabassum Architects and its journey from Dhaka to Weil am Rhein’, Vitra Design Museum, 2025, and ‘Tane Garden House’, 2023.
He has documented architectural projects and urban settlements that redefine the built environment, collaborating with renowned architecture firms and cultural institutions. His neverending search for the intricate relationship between the human being and his surroundings, a central subject in his photographs, was presented in 2018 as « In[Cognitus] », a monographic exhibition at the WAAO in Lille, France. In 2024, Julien Lanoo was invited by architect Karim Nader to document the city of Beirut through analog photography, leading to the exhibition titled « Visions of Beirut », which was part of WeDesign Beirut. Handcrafted in his dark room, these black-and-white photographs, along with his ongoing documentation of The Line in Saudi Arabia, are part of private collections.
