iMAL is the first public project of Central. This Brussels-based office for architecture and urbanism was the winner of a competition organized by the Brussels Government Architect in 2016. Four years later, iMAL is opening.

iMAL is surprisingly not an official dealer of electronic devices but an arts centre dedicated to digital cultures and new technologies. Founded some months before the y2k bug, the ‘interactive Media Art Laboratory’ has been housed since its creation in part of a former industrial building in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, the Farcy flour mill, an asset unlisted by the great capital, yet listed on the inventory of historic buildings. A privileged spectator of the procession of barges, its location on Quai des Charbonnages makes it an actor in the transformation of the Canal Zone initiated in 2012 by the Region and urban planner Alexandre Chemetoff. Pushed along by the current, with the erdf wind in its sails, iMAL is today on the way to completing a new project carried out by Central in association with np2f: castii, a sparkling acronym for the Centre for Arts, Sciences, Technologies, Innovation and Inclusion. Quite a programme!