« Qui a peur de l’architecture?» (‘Who’s afraid of architecture?’) Under this striking title, the Higher Institute of Architecture La Cambre published a white paper on architecture in 2004, which formed the basis for a public debate on the quality of architecture in the French Community of Belgium. It was high time. On the Flemish side, the post of Flemish Chief Architect had been created in 1999, and as early as 2002 the VAI (Flemish Architecture Institute) had been established. In the French Community, however, ‘the political institutions (…) were characterised by a weak vision, not to say a total lack of policy to promote quality architecture.

The Centre International pour la Ville, l’Architecture et le Paysage (CIVA), founded in 1999 and which brought together the activities of various non-profit organisations such as the Archives d’Architecture Moderne (AAM), nevertheless had great potential. The manner in which the CIVA was wound up in early 2015 therefore came as a great surprise. Just as much as the initiative by the Cellule Architecture, which launched the Ministry of Culture’s call for a new centre for architecture in the French Community in 2019. What is the point of closing an institute for architectural culture in the French Community only to open another one a few years later?