The student association Existenz, representing civil engineering and architecture students at KU Leuven, organises an annual design competition. Each year, participants are given twelve hours to develop an idea or concept in response to a socially relevant issue. This time, the competition brief was provided by the engineering firm Sbe. The brief was: design a cycle bridge near Sint-Niklaas station that forms a link between two sections of the existing F4 cycle highway to Antwerp and Ghent. The adjacent, undeveloped plots were also to be incorporated into the design.

In the Existenz XII competition, the main focus is on developing the design brief conceptually. Calculations of the bridge structure were not required. After twelve hours of design work, the urban design proposal by Senne Heylen, Matthis Nelissen and Lucas Verhaeghe emerged as the winner.