A+ launched an appeal to researchers, writers, critics, designers and planners to contribute to the magazine’s opinion section. Inigo Custers, affiliated with Ghent University, responded to the question: is architecture a tool for city marketing?

In 1992, Seville hosted the first world exhibition in Europe since Expo ’58. The architects of the Belgian pavilion – Driessen, Meersman and Thomaes – were selected through a design competition, which was still a rare phenomenon in Belgium at the time. The pavilion, with its façade of climate-resistant white blinds, earned worldwide praise. However, this triumph was preceded by a great deal of tampering. Initially, the Buildings Agency, in keeping with its bad habit, had awarded the design contract in a rather arbitrary manner to the architectural duo Wybauw and Van Halteren. They designed a glass building in the shape of a diamond, obviously a reference to the Belgian (Antwerp) diamond industry. However, this ridiculous design and the way in which the commission had been awarded were heavily criticised by architects. As a result, the diamond-shaped design was eventually consigned to the archive boxes and a design competition was launched.