There are buildings where you access the various rooms and their facilities via corridors. There are also buildings where you move from room to room, as is now the case at the nona cultural centre in Mechelen, a project by dmvA. So are there no corridors? Actually, there are: winding corridors, wide corridors, narrow alleys. Only, they lead nowhere…

In the old, cosy café of the cultural centre, I meet architect David Driesen of dmvA and Axel Doumen, one of the founders and driving forces behind nona. We are the only people at the bar. It is early June and the sector is still in lockdown. The extension to nona – with the new theatre hall – was completed a few months ago, but has never been tested in the flesh, with an audience.