On Thursday 20 November 2025, the Flanders Architecture Institute organises its annual research day in De Singel in Antwerp. Entitled Hors Catégorie, it explores how archival classifications shape – but also limit – our understanding of design heritage. How do we categorise objects, disciplines, and forms of authorship and what blind spots are produced through these systems? How can we consider practices that elude, transcend, or contest conventional institutional and historical classification? What to do with practices hors catégorie?

Expect a day full of inspiring keynotes, sparkling debates and interesting encounters.

On 19 November, the VAi is organising a talk at De Singel as part of HouseEurope!, a European campaign that advocates renovation as the norm. Instead of demolition, reuse, adaptation and restoration are central to the core strategies for a more sustainable and equitable built environment.

Speakers: Bram Leroux (Wooncoop), Iris Van de Walle (Comisol), ACME, Bram Aerts (Ir. architect - partner ATAMA) and Jouri De Pelecijn (Team Vlaams Bouwmeester). Moderator: Dennis Pohl (director VAi).

What forces, ideals and dreams determine the place that nature occupies in a city? The exhibition Tamed Nature exposes the hidden mechanisms behind urban greenery for the first time. It showcases unknown and underappreciated stories from the history of urban green space. Contemporary artistic and architectural interventions challenge conventional notions of urban nature and look ahead to a more inclusive, layered, and resilient urban future.

The Belgian pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2025 presents a radical experiment that challenges the relationship between nature, technology and architecture. Curated by landscape architect Bas Smets in collaboration with neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, Building Biospheres explores how plant intelligence can shape the built environment, creating self-regulating microclimates that redefine our human notions of comfort and control.

The catalogue expands on the questions raised by the exhibition, bringing together perspectives from architecture, neurobiology, artificial intelligence, botany and philosophy. With contributions by Emanuele Coccia, Lisa De Visscher, Bart Decroos, Kathelin Gray, Lydia Kallipoliti, Petrus Kemme, Véronique Patteeuw, Dennis Pohl, Bas Smets.