More than a competition & Celebrating Public Architecture

40 years of competition culture: two new publications

On 27 November 2021, the Flanders Architecture Institute opened a double exhibition under the title 40 years of competition. The travelling exhibition Open Call. 20 Years of Public Architecture can be seen until 17 April in an expanded version at De Singel in Antwerp. It accompanies the Coming of Age exhibition, which highlights ten iconic architecture competitions from the period 1980-2000.

Accompanying the exhibitions two publications were published. In Celebrating Public Architecture, the Berlin architecture critic Florian Heilmeyer, under the auspices of the publishing house JOVIS and in close collaboration with the Flemish Government Architect, brings a selection of public projects to the attention of an international audience. These projects are the result of the Open Call procedure of the Flemish Government Architect. In addition, Maarten Liefooghe and Maarten Van Den Driessche, the curators of the Open Call exhibition, assembled a collection of essays in More Than a Competition. In this book a number of architectural historians and critics take a close look at the Open Call procedure for designers, focusing on its history and challenges for the future.

As co-publishers of both publications, the Team Vlaams Bouwmeester and the Flanders Architecture Institute invite Lara Schrijver (Universiteit Antwerpen) to read the books. On Tuesday 8 March she will discuss them with Doris Kleilein (JOVIS Verlag Berlin), Anne Malliet and Erik Wieërs (Team Vlaams Bouwmeester), Maarten Liefooghe and Maarten Van Den Driessche (UGent). The debate will be preceded by a guided tour of the double exhibition. Admission is free.