The Flanders Architectural Review, the biennial showcase of architecture from Flanders and Brussels, is published this autumn under the title Building • Culture. Featuring more than sixty selected projects and eighteen textual and visual essays, this new edition offers not only an overview of recent architectural output, but above all a critical exploration of the underlying building culture. The VAi will present the book on 12 November at VTI Ostend.
Flanders Architectural Review No. 17. Building • Culture
Available from 12 November 2026 at vai.be or in good bookshops
Book launch & press preview
12.11.2026 at 20:00, VTI Ostend
Register here
International press tour
25.11.2026 > 26.11.2026, Brussels
Register via egon.verleye@vai.be
Unlike most architectural surveys, which tend to focus on completed buildings as autonomous objects, Building • Culture consciously adopts a broader perspective. Architecture is the result of complex negotiations between designers, clients, public authorities, users, regulations, materials, infrastructure and societal challenges. The book explores how these diverse forces influence one another and how contemporary building culture emerges from these very tensions.
‘Architecture does not exist in isolation’. Every project is the result of a complex interplay between designers, clients, public authorities, users, regulations and available resources.’
The biennial Flanders Architectural Review documents the most relevant architectural projects from Flanders and Brussels. In this seventeenth edition, however, the editorial team explicitly asks what contemporary architecture means today. In their view, architecture cannot be viewed in isolation from the historical, social, political and ecological context in which buildings are created and function.
The title – Building • Culture – refers to this reciprocity. After all, building is never merely a technical act, but always a cultural practice. Every building is embedded in a network of regulations, labour, the economy, climate, heritage, infrastructure and collective values. The built environment is therefore not composed of disparate objects, but is a multilayered web of narratives, systems and relationships.
As a result, the book deliberately focuses on processes, collaborations and contrasts. The central question is not which architecture is ‘the best’, but how architecture is created, used, discussed and appreciated today.
‘When we approach social infrastructure as the foundation of community life, the aim shifts from stimulating civic participation to creating and designing environments in which that participation can arise spontaneously.’
A key recurring theme throughout the publication is the notion of friction. In the editors’ view, architecture rarely arises from harmony, but rather from ongoing negotiations. Designers come up against regulations; sustainability ambitions clash with economic realities; and social expectations collide with spatial constraints. Buildings are the visible traces of often invisible processes.
The book’s selection process also reflects this idea. The editorial team assessed 272 submissions and visited a hundred projects across Flanders and Brussels. Consensus proved to be the exception rather than the rule. Discussions on quality, social relevance, heritage, sustainability and use formed an essential part of the editorial process. These differences of opinion were not seen as a problem, but as a necessary condition for revealing the richness and diversity of contemporary architectural culture.
‘Nothing is more sustainable than what already exists.’
In total, the book documents more than sixty projects. Eight of these are examined in detail as outstanding examples of productive collaboration between diverse stakeholders and interests. A further fifty-four projects are covered in essays, visual contributions and thematic reflections.
The book opens with Usquare Feder in Brussels, the transformation of a former barracks site into a university and urban campus by evr-architecten, BC architects & studies & materials, and Callebaut Architecten. According to the editorial board, the project brings together, in exemplary fashion, a range of contemporary challenges relating to reuse, public commissioning, urban development and architectural quality.
Other selected projects address themes such as affordable housing, educational infrastructure, healthcare architecture, circular construction, public space and participatory design processes. Featured projects include the Rustenhove social housing scheme in Ypres, the Psychiatric Centre for Children in Pelt, the Kadee Nursery and De Fierenshoven in Antwerp, the VTI in Ostend and Recypark Demets in Anderlecht.
‘The architect is no longer merely “the one who knows”, but rather the one who guides, uncovers and connects.’
The publication is structured around five thematic clusters, each of which highlights an area of tension within contemporary architectural culture: ‘Policy • Matter’, ‘Prosperity • Infrastructure’, ‘Indoors • Outdoors’, ‘Practice • Process’ and ‘Architecture • Arts’. Within these chapters, architectural projects engage in dialogue with essays and photographic contributions from authors, researchers, designers and artists.
The authors include Paola Viganò, Kristiaan Borret, Stijn Oosterlynck, Juliane Greb, Heleen Verheyden, Dennis Pohl, Petrus Kemme, Amber Vermaete and Hülya Ertas. Their contributions explore contemporary issues such as the future of school infrastructure, social facilities, spatial justice, healthcare architecture, the role of architectural policy and the social significance of architecture exhibitions.
‘The existing fabric witnesses the spatial research from the past: the existing is not only a gigantic material storage, but also a superb deposit of spatial concepts that can prove to be contemporary still.’
With Flanders Architectural Review No. 17, the VAi does not seek to pass definitive judgement on the state of architecture in Flanders and Brussels. The book’s primary objective is to contribute to a broader debate on the future of our built environment. The selected projects do not offer ready-made answers, but show how architecture acquires meaning today within a complex reality of social, cultural and ecological challenges.
As the editorial board states, this issue ultimately aims to be a catalyst: an invitation to draw connections, delve deeper into differences of opinion and explore new forms of building culture.
ISBN 9789492567451
255 x 200 mm
English, paperback, 324 pages
Available from 12 November 2026 at vai.be/publicaties and in better bookshops: €34.50
Also available in Dutch: Architectuurboek Vlaanderen No. 17
Cultuur • Bouwen
ISBN 9789492567444
Editorial board Dennis Pohl, Aya Akbib, Anthony Engien in de betere boekhandel Meacock, Juliane Greb, Petrus Kemme, Stijn Oosterlynck, Paola Viganò.
Authors Aya Akbib, Kristiaan Borret, Gaëlle De Gezelle, Fay De Maesschalk, Michiel Deumens, Anthony EngiMeacock, Hülya Ertas, Juliane Greb, Arno Huylebroeck, Petrus Kemme, Victor Lindemeier, Inyas Montesinos, Stijn Oosterlynck, Dennis Pohl, Jorik Scherpenberg, Ma arten Van Acker, Beatriz Van Houtte Alonso, Leen Vansteenkiste, Heleen Verheyden, Amber Vermaete, Paola Viganò.
Photography Dhiaa Biya, Tatjana Huong Henderieckx, Jason Ladrigan, Ligia Pop ł Grafisch ontwerp
Printer Atelier Haegeman Temmerman, Gent Albe De Coker, Hoboken
Publisher Flanders Architecture Institute, Jan Van Rijswijcklaan 155 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
Egon Verleye
Press & Communication Officer
Flanders Architecture Institute
T +32 (0)3 242 89 73
E egon.verleye@vai.be
