Talk:Julien Lanoo

Proposed substantial update to article

I am Julien Lanoo, the subject of this article, and therefore have a conflict of interest regarding this biography. I am proposing the following update for review by uninvolved editors rather than making the substantive changes directly.

The current article is very short and still contains maintenance notices dating from 2017 concerning notability, sourcing for a living person, and source reliability. Since then, substantially more independent and institutional coverage has become available.

The proposed rewrite below is intentionally written in a neutral, encyclopedic style. It relies primarily on independent secondary sources and appropriate institutional sources, including Designboom, ArchDaily, Architizer, Galerie Magazine, LM Magazine, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and others.

I would appreciate review and implementation by an uninvolved editor.

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Julien Lanoo
Born	1985 (age 40–41)
Occupation	Photographer
Known for	Architectural photography
Website	www.julienlanoo.com

Julien Lanoo (born 1985) is a Belgian photographer whose work focuses primarily on architecture, urban environments and the built environment. His photographic practice examines architecture in relation to its inhabitants and to the social, historical and geographic context of a place.

In 2016, three of Lanoo's photographs were shortlisted for the Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards. His first monographic exhibition, In[Cognitus], was presented at the WAAO Centre for Architecture and Urbanism in Lille in 2018. In 2019 his work received a recognition at the European Architectural Photography Prize, organized in cooperation with the Deutsches Architekturmuseum. In 2021, Julien Lanoo Studio won the photography-studio specialization of Architizer's inaugural A+Firm Awards. In 2025, Lanoo received the Créateurs Design Award for Best Project Photography for Surf Ghana Busua.

Career and photographic practice

Lanoo's work developed around architecture, urbanism and the documentation of the built environment. In a 2017 profile and interview, designboom described him as a Belgian photographer known for documenting the built environment while including the people who define a location. His photographs have included architecture in Europe, Africa and Asia, and projects by practices including Herzog & de Meuron, LAN and KPF.

Lanoo has described his approach as one in which architecture is understood through more than its formal appearance. His photography considers the users of buildings, their surroundings, geography, function, nature and the atmosphere of a place as elements of architectural interpretation. In an interview with Kontextur, he described photography as a means of constructing a coherent visual narrative from the multiple levels through which architecture can be understood.

His practice includes both digital and analogue photography. Lanoo has related his photographic process to his early experience working with film, darkroom printing and scanning, and has argued against applying a uniform photographic style to different architectural projects. Architizer subsequently examined these characteristics in a feature on his work, emphasizing his treatment of architecture through inhabitation, historical layers, social integration, the natural environment and urban transformation.

A recurring element of Lanoo's work is the presence of inhabitants and everyday activity within architectural photographs. Rather than treating buildings only as isolated formal objects, his images often situate architecture within the life and circumstances surrounding it.

Exhibitions and cultural work

In 2018, the WAAO Centre for Architecture and Urbanism in Lille presented In[Cognitus], Lanoo's first monographic exhibition, as part of the Transphotographiques photography festival. The exhibition addressed the relationship between people and the built environment and combined photographs of well-known architecture with lesser-known projects.

That year, Lanoo also participated with architect Julien De Smedt in a public discussion at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine in Paris devoted to the book Built Unbuilt and to their documentation of sixteen years of architectural projects.

In 2019, a series by Lanoo received a recognition (Anerkennung) in the European Architectural Photography Prize architekturbild, whose theme that year was Joyful Architecture. The selected works were exhibited at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt as part of the award exhibition.

Architizer has reported that Lanoo's photographs have also been exhibited in contexts including the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine in Paris and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum.

Awards and recognition

In 2016, three photographs by Lanoo were among the twenty images shortlisted for the Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards. His photograph of Independence Square in Accra was shortlisted in the Buildings in Use category; his photograph of Herzog & de Meuron's Vitra Schaudepot in Weil am Rhein was shortlisted in the Exteriors category; and his photograph of the Haduwa Arts & Culture Institute in Ghana was shortlisted in the Sense of Place category.

In 2019, Lanoo received a recognition in the European Architectural Photography Prize architekturbild competition, presented in cooperation with the Deutsches Architekturmuseum and the Bundesstiftung Baukultur.

In 2021, Julien Lanoo Studio received the Photography Studio specialization award in the inaugural Architizer A+Firm Awards. Architizer subsequently included the studio in its selection of leading architectural photography studios and published a feature examining Lanoo's approach to architectural photography.

At the 2025 Créateurs Design Awards in Paris, Lanoo won Best Project Photography for Surf Ghana Busua, a photographic series documenting a project in Ghana.

His photographic documentation of Star Homes – Tanzania, a housing project by Ingvartsen Architects, was named a finalist in the Architecture + Photography and Video category of the 2025 Architizer A+Awards.

In 2026, Lanoo was selected for the Créateurs Design Awards in the Best Project – Photography category for his photographs of the Backyard Community Club by DeRoche Projects in Accra, Ghana.

Selected publications

• De Smedt, Julien. Built Unbuilt. Photography by Julien Lanoo. Amsterdam: Frame Publishers, 2017. ISBN 978-94-92311-13-9.
• Kries, Mateo, ed. The Vitra Campus: Architecture Design Industry. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum, 2020. ISBN 978-3-945852-35-4. Lanoo's photography is included in the publication.

External links

• Official website

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Thank you for reviewing the proposed rewrite. I would also welcome an uninvolved editor's assessment of whether the three maintenance tags dating from 2017 remain necessary after the article has been updated with the stronger independent sourcing above. ItIsAllAboutTheJourney (talk) 09:13, 10 August 2026 (UTC)