Bart Lens, the renowned architect and designer, received the Lifetime Achievement Award; a prize that is only destined for a designer or design studio that has been active for at least 30 years and has had both national and international impact on an economic, social and cultural level.

When surveying the panorama of designers one cannot help noticing that many were trained as architects, including Bart Lens. Not until he had reached the age of 36 did Bart Lens (°1959) set up his own architectural business, Lens°Ass Architects.

In 2003 Lens published an overview of his first seven years of creativity with a diversity of projects: houses, shops, industrial buildings, restorations and a series of objects including lighting fixtures and furniture. It wasn’t a chronological list, but a classification of the materials used: a method which is fairly unusual but one which stresses the importance Lens gives to a material’s tactility. Good design is more than a concept, it is the accurate conversion of that idea to a result which expresses the experiential value and envisaged feel. 

There’s (almost) nothing new under the sun, Lens knows; it’s a matter of transforming the things that already exist. Observing how people surround themselves with objects and how they move through the space is an important phase in the creative process. Turning ideas into physical form calls for great sensitivity and knowledge of materials. As the years progress he is drawn ever closer to the materials, with the traditional ways of working them becoming ever more important.

AVENUE ROAD carries a curated assortment of Bart Lens pieces.