Architectural culture in Flanders has come a long way. In the 1980s, only a few individuals attracted attention on the (inter)national scene. Nowadays, architecture in Flanders is closely monitored internationally and celebrated in exhibitions and publications. One of the most important catalysts for this quality and the opportunities that design practices are given and seize today is the emergence of a rather impressive competition culture since the 1980s. It is this culture of competitions that two exhibitions by the VAi explore.

Open Call. 20 years of architecture in public commissions highlights the most recent period and was curated by Maarten Liefooghe and Maarten Van Den Driessche. After stops in Ghent, Hasselt, Kortrijk, Leuven and Atelier Bouwmeester in Brussels, the exhibition makes its final stop at deSingel. The exhibition highlights the competition formula in four facets. The Wunderkammer opens the exhibition with a carousel showing architectural fragments of completed projects. Joris Kerremans, Louis Seynaeve and Toon Verdonck interpret the output of the many competitions by focusing on materials, public interiors and silhouettes, among other things, in their models.