The Belgian architect Jean Hensens is renowned for his influential work in Morocco from 1962 to 1989, during which he worked for various public institutions and private architectural offices in Morocco, significantly contributing to experiments to modernize earth-building techniques, studies of rural and urban architecture, a major resettlement project, and territorial planning policies and methodologies. His architectural approach was characterized by criticism of “centralism” and driven by the belief that a methodical prospective interpretation of Moroccan vernacular architecture could foster new forms of local architecture.

Born on May 12, 1929, near Seraing, Belgium, Jean Hensens grew up in a working-class family of six children. He was the only one to pursue higher education. Supported by his neighbor, Julien Lahaut, a prominent Belgian communist activist, Hensens received a scholarship that enabled him to study architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège after World War II.

Between 1947 and 1954, Hensens became politically engaged, joining a small group of anarchist student activists and participating in left-wing protests and activities. In 1948, alongside Belgian communist architect Michel de Leenheer, who would also work in Morocco, he attended a labor camp organized by the Belgian Socialist Youth in Bulgaria.

In 1950, at the age of 21, Hensens graduated as an architect from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège, subsequently pursuing further training in art history at the same institution and completed his military service. Between 1953 and 1954, he worked for a year and a half with the renowned Belgian architect George Dedoyard in Liège. A personal romantic disappointment led him to relocate to Paris in 1954, where he worked with several private architectural firms. It was there that he met architect Jean Weiler, brother-in-law to his future wife, the sociologist Stacia Cviklinski. They married in 1958 and had two daughters.

In 1962, after meeting Moroccan architect Mourad Ben Embarek in Paris, Hensens accepted a position at Morocco's Ministry of Public Works in Casablanca, moving with Stacia Hensens and their first daughter. He transferred to Marrakech in 1964, reconnected with Michel de Leenheer, and joined a progressive circle of friends. In Marrakech, Hensens collaborated with Alain Masson, an innovative French engineer who involved him in building extensive neighborhoods using earth-concrete techniques.

In 1968, Alain Masson, having relocated to Rabat, invited Jean and Stacia Hensens to join the newly established experimental research center CERF (Centre d’expérimentation, de recherche et de formation, 1967-1972) under Morocco's Ministry of Interior. Most notably, he was in charge of the project to renovate the qsours in the pre-Saharan valleys as part of the Rural Habitat Programme funded by the World Food Program of the United Nations (a project shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture).

After CERF’s closure in 1972, Hensens continued his work within Morocco’s new Ministry in charge of Housing and territorial planning. From 1976 to 1986, he served as a technical coopérant for Belgium’s Development Cooperation Administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1985, Hensens began teaching at the École Nationale d'Architecture (ENA) in Rabat, Morocco's first school of architecture. From 1986 to 1989, he consulted for the Agronomic and Veterinary Institute in Rabat, conducting research on rural housing in the Gharb region, and was also a consultant for Morocco’s Ministry of Housing between 1988 and 1989.

In 1989, Stacia and Jean Hensens moved to the south of France, but Jean Hensens continued professional engagements in Morocco. Jean Hensens passed away in France on July 1, 2006.

The Fonds Jean Hensens entered the archives of the Université Libre de Bruxelles through donations made by his wife, Stacia Hensens. These archives were progressively deposited between 2016 and 2023.

-Ben Clark, PhD Candidate, Université libre de Bruxelles, 2025.

Further Reading:

Ben Clark, “Comment « devenir traditionnel » ? Premiers projets et espoirs de l’architecte Jean Hensens (1929–2006) au Maroc,” CLARA, no. 8, 2024, Éditions de la Faculté d’Architecture La Cambre Horta, p. 170–203. https://www.cairn.info/revue-clara-2023-1-page-170.htm. Archived at: https://perma.cc/G4MZ-M76Z