About Julien Lanoo architecture photography

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 never-ending 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.
Since 2015, Julien has been photographing the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein for Vitra, resulting in publications and exhbitions such as ‘The Vitra Campus’(2016), ‘The Vitra Schaudepot’(2017), ‘Typecasting’ (2018), ‘The Vitra Campus: Architecture Design Industry’ (2020), ‘Kazuo Shinohara: The Umbrella House Project’ (2022), ‘Tane Garden House’ (2023), ‘Piet Oudolf At Work’ (2023), ‘Khudi Bari – a social project by Marina Tabassum Architects and its journey from Dhaka to Weil am Rhein’ (2025). Exhibitions at Vitra Design Museum featuring his work include « Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine » , « Project Vitra – Design, Architecture, Communications (1950–2017) » , « Garden Futures – Designing with Nature » , « Tsuyoshi Tane: The Garden House » .

Julien was a four-time nominee at the WAF Architectural Photography Awards in 2016 and was selected for the European Architectural Photography Prize in 2019. In 2021, his studio was named ‘World’s best architecture photography studio’ at the A+Firm Awards, organized by Architizer.
In 2025, he received the Créateurs Design Awards (CDA) for Best Project Photography, alongside Lord Norman Foster and SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa), who were awarded the Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award and Le Prix Charlotte Perriand, respectively. Most recently, his analog series of 110 Star Homes in Mtwara, Tanzania has been nomiated for Best project Photography at the Architizer Awards, an award celebrating the world’s most inspiring architecture.