The Belgian architectural world has a thriving competition culture. Since the creation of the position of Flemish Government Architect in 1999, a range of procedures has developed to promote the quality of the built environment. It is almost a matter of course in Belgium that competition procedures stimulate strong commissioning and, among other things, offer opportunities for young offices to stand out in new design assignments. But how do foreign architectural firms view the selection procedures of the Flemish Government Architect, the Brussels Government Architect (BMA) and the Cellule architecture of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation? In this article, we give the floor to Mechthild Stuhlmacher of Korteknie Stuhlmacher (Rotterdam), Stephen Bates of Sergison Bates (London), Mathieu Berteloot of HBAAT (Lille), Hideyuki Nakayama (Tokyo), Ido Avissar of List (Paris) and Kjetil Thorsen of Snøhetta (Oslo).

In More Than a Competition, published on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Open Call, Maarten Liefooghe wrote that the Belgian competition context is viewed with admiration from abroad. Liefooghe quoted the magazine L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, which considers the interaction between the various actors (clients, Government or City Architects, designers) as an art that guarantees the quality of projects, from competition to site. Existing competition formulas are nevertheless regularly criticized from different quarters. Current Flemish Government Architect Erik Wieërs also recently indicated that future-proofing instruments like the Open Call poses a challenge, both in legal terms (in weighing up the assessment criteria) and in creating public support.
From the perspective of architects, participation in competitions has gone through an evolution. Competition designs are increasingly drawn up by multidisciplinary design teams, and the competitions of the Brussels and Flemish Government Architects and the Cellule architecture show numerous collaborations between Belgian and foreign designers. Liefooghe wrote in this context of ‘the rise of Belgian-foreign collaborations’ and points to the growing share of foreign participants in the Open Call.