At the end of August, after two consecutive terms – from 2015 to 2020 and from 2020 to 2025 – Kristiaan Borret bid farewell as Bouwmeester Master Architect (BMA) of the Brussels-Capital Region. For ten years, he and his team worked tirelessly to improve the spatial quality of urban development projects in Brussels. To influence urban quality, Kristiaan Borret, from the moment he took office, set out to help not only public project owners, but also private sector property developers. Indeed, private projects largely determine the living and working environment of a city like Brussels. An interview about quality, limiting monopolies, professional empathy and dispelling some deeply rooted misunderstandings.

Eline Dehullu (A+) As the professional real estate sector builds a very large proportion of the buildings in Brussels, you have also focused on quality dialogue with private clients. This is quite exceptional! No other public authority had done this before you, nor has any followed your example to date. The BMA has two tools at its disposal for this purpose: issuing opinions and organising architectural competitions. What do these instruments consist of and what are the differences between the formulas for public and private clients?