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Open Call 50
Welcome to the page of Open Call 50. You can apply for nine new projects. The application period runs until 11:00 AM (CET) on Friday 14 November 2025. The first selections will be announced in February 2026. You will find all the information you need to apply in the selection guide on the project sheets.
If you don’t find an answer to your question, you can always contact us.
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Véronique Claessens about Open Call 50
Dear designers and clients,
The publication of Open Call 50 marks my first feat as Flemish Government Architect. This 50th edition is an interim milestone, with no fewer than 756 published and 351 completed projects behind us. Along with the international recognition and appreciation of the Open Call as a procedure, the architectural quality and social added value of the completed projects mean that the Open Call is and remains a highly relevant and valuable instrument. I therefore wish to encourage public clients with construction plans to continue to call as much as possible on the Flemish Government Architect and her team in the preparation of their project dossiers and the selection of designers.
This edition includes three projects from local authorities in Ostend, Herentals and Heist-aan-Zee. All three invite designers to translate ambitious agendas and policies into infrastructure projects in the service of staff and residents. Working with the clients, my team refined the programmes in an attempt to maximize social added value.
Public space is an important theme for me. It will be one of the pillars of the ambition statement I will be presenting in a few months. In each of these three projects, architecture and public space are the subject of one and the same design assignment. When assessing the proposals, I will therefore pay attention in the first place to the design capabilities of architects, public space designers and landscape architects. I look forward to discovering their qualities and references, and I am confident that, in consultation with my team, I will arrive at three strong and diverse selections, as for the projects of the previous 49 editions.
The Open Call holds few secrets for me. As director of spatial development for the city of Genk, I gained a lot of experience with the procedure over the past twelve years. Time and again, we were surprised, as clients, by smart solutions we had not thought of ourselves, or we were given answers for a broader context and problem definition. In my view, this is precisely where the strength of good designers lies: in daring to think critically about the assignments at hand and in using creativity to tackle local challenges.
I wish everyone involved every success and look forward to five exciting years as Flemish Government Architect.
Véronique Claessens, Flemish Government Architect
