The ‘Schools of Tomorrow’ catch-up programme for school infrastructure is almost complete. By the end of next year, the DBFM partnership will have completed 182 new-build and refurbishment projects. Of these, 154 are now in use. The Flemish Chief Architect’s Team, which was jointly responsible for selecting the designs and providing advice on their development, looks back.

When Marcel Smets took up his post as the second Flemish Chief Architect in 2005 and was approached by the then Minister for Education, Frank Vandenbroucke, to advise him on this major catch-up programme in school construction, it was far from clear how we could guarantee the architectural quality of the projects. One billion euros was to be invested via alternative financing. A private partner would be appointed to take responsibility for the financing, design, construction and maintenance (DBFM), in exchange for an availability payment over a period of thirty years. The buildings would subsequently be transferred to the school authorities free of charge.