Today, thousands of parents are deeply concerned because they have not yet managed to secure a place for their child at a primary or secondary school for the coming school year. Belgium’s major cities are facing an acute shortage of places. The government is investing too little – and, above all, too slowly – in school construction. Securing funding for a new school can take decades. By the time the project for the new school is on the architect’s desk in the form of a public contract, things often have to move very quickly.

However, design takes time. Not only because it is a creative process fuelled by doubt and questioning – a process that needs time to mature – but above all because a design only gains in quality when it is the result of an ongoing dialogue. With clients, users, partners, engineering firms – in short, with various stakeholders who all have their own vision in mind. Added to this are often unstable funding, shifting political priorities or new regulations, which mean that by the end of the process, the initial project definition often differs significantly from the final requirements, expectations and the built result.