Alena Beth Rieger

• Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Movables. In Fleckner, Uwe & Lending, Mari (Ed.), Provenance in Architecture. A Dictionary. Hatje Cantz Verlag. ISSN 9783775761147. p. 129–131. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Demolition. In Fleckner, Uwe & Lending, Mari (Ed.), Provenance in Architecture. A Dictionary. Hatje Cantz Verlag. ISSN 9783775761147. p. 73–75. Full text in Research Archive
• Lending, Mari; Mitchell, Simon & Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Introduction: The Potential of Provenance. Future Anterior. ISSN 1549-9715. 22(1-2), p. iii–viii. doi: 10.1353/fta.2025.a982224. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Usus, Fructus, Abusus. Future Anterior. ISSN 1549-9715. Summer/Winter 2025(1–2), p. 35–54. doi: 10.1353/fta.2025.a982228. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  When the pieces of Maison du Peuple (Victor Horta, Brussels, 1896–­99) disappeared from their precarious storage site in 1983, questions of ownership, provenance, and material value were placed center stage. In the ensuing legal case, the building’s dense post-­ demolition provenance became subject to the scrutiny of the Belgian courts. The case was an inflection point in a long battle to salvage Maison du Peuple: a disaster for the stolen parts but a liberation for those that remained. The demolition of Maison du Peuple had already catapulted the building to international fame, but the theft of it nearly twenty years later aroused a more local outrage. Custodians and owners rushed to take advantage of a surge of interest in the deconstructed art nouveau icon, in a new cultural moment. Through a detailed unraveling of the most dubious ownerships of Maison du Peuple, this article argues that it was precisely during moments of crisis that the reputation of Maison du Peuple was reconfigured and its future stability secured.

• Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Extract, Accumulate, Expel (repeat). Metode. Volume 3(Currents). Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2022). Land Sea Land. Canadian Centre for Architecture. Figuring Territory. Full text in Research Archive

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• Rieger, Alena Beth; Roede, Ingrid Dobloug & Souza, João Doria de (2023). Søstra100: Omsorgsbua. Good in Theory; Plantas Press; Søstra100. ISBN 9788269350500. 120 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth & Pereira-Edwards, Alexandra (2016). Warehouse Journal Volume 25. University of Manitoba. ISBN 9781894586405. 224 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Rieger, Alena Beth (2026). Friction and Failure: A Proposal for Architectural History. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2026). To Have and To Hold. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2026). The Mise en Scène of Maison du Peuple. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Contents. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Ownership as Authorship. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Immeubles. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2025). Moveables. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Usus, Fructus, Abusus. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). NF from 08–11. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Starts and Stops. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The citation of a building, like naming a person, is typically followed by the bracketed years of its construction. When the building no longer exists, these years span its birth to death or beginning to end. Buildings such as Victor Horta’s Maison du Peuple, which could be dated as (1896–1899) (1899–1965) (1899–1965, 2000–) or simply (1899–), complicate this convention. Detecting the exact start or end of Maison du Peuple, a reasonably simple question for which to seek an answer, remains difficult. Maison du Peuple was demolished in 1965—save the main banquet hall, the cafe, and a staircase which were marked, disassembled, and stored until plans for their use could be finalized. Most of these plans never materialized. Instead, pieces of Maison du Peuple, totalling 130 tonnes of material, disappeared to disparate locations. 70 tons of building elements were sold to a scrap dealer. Twelve truckloads were distributed to a museum and two municipalities. A number of stone and iron pieces simply sunk into the swamp-like field where they were stored and countless elements were looted from open storage in vacant lots. Remnants of Horta’s masterpiece currently lay dormant in the cellar of the Saint-Gilles town hall, the backyard of the Horta Museum, a cafe in the centre of Antwerp, the Brussels Comic Strip Centre, and in an underground tram station at the corner of Chaussée de Waterloo and Rue du Lycée, Brussels. Since 2000, parts of the pre-fabricated structure have been reconstituted into a cafe and event venue. This paper traces the post-demolition appropriations of Maison du Peuple which extend the building’s ending far beyond its demolition.

• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Two Interludes. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Oslo Architecture Triennale: Discussion with LINA Fellows. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Wrenches, Wrecking Balls, Cranes, and Sledgehammers. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Maison du Peuple in Pieces. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Demolition, Disappearance, Recurrence. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Demolition, Disappearance, Recurrence: Interludes in Architectural History. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2024). Moveables. Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2023). Extract, Accumulate, Expel (repeat). Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2023). Demolition, Disappearance, Recurrence: Interludes in Architectural History (Literature Review and Research Design). Full text in Research Archive
• Rieger, Alena Beth (2020). Week Twelve, or Rethinking Reuse. Places Journal. Full text in Research Archive

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