Open Call for clients
Why choose the Open Call to appoint your designer?
A public client bears a special cultural responsibility because he builds with his social mission in mind. He has a mission and a vision, which he realises in part through the way he builds.
By making use of the Open Call, you demonstrate your sense of responsibility and ambition as a public client. It shows that you take your spatial project seriously and prioritise design quality.
To bring this assignment to a successful conclusion, public clients can count on the Team Flemish Government Architect. Since 2000, the Team has provided, through the Open Call, a unique methodology for selecting designers for public projects.
- You are guided expertly and free of charge through the entire procedure, up to the award of the assignment.
- You are assisted in maximizing your ambitions and preparing a robust project definition.
- You use a recognized procedure specially developed for appointing design teams for public assignments, with accompanying model documents (selection and award guidelines, standard agreements, reports, etc.).
- The announcement of your project and the award are published by e-procurement. The application process takes place entirely via the Flemish Government Architect website.
- You select designers based on the quality of their design vision and not just on price.
- You have the opportunity to engage in dialogue with the candidates from the start of the procedure.
- You let the Flemish Government Architect advise you in making your final choice. This will ground your choice more firmly, without encroaching on your autonomy.
- After the award, when the design is being drawn up, we organize a consultation moment with the client and the design team. You can also agree on quality follow-up with one of the external experts from the award committee.
- You are guided by a team with 25 years of experience and with more than 700 public projects under their belt.
Registering a project
The next Open Call, edition 51, will be published in early March 2026. We would like to start projects for this Open Call before the end of November. Open Call 52 will be published in October 2026. The sooner we can review your project together, the better.
What clients can make use of the Open Call?
All public authorities and non-profit organizations subsidized for more than 50% by the Flemish Government can call on our services. We have already worked with local authorities, autonomous municipal companies, housing companies, educational institutions, public non-profit organizations, intermunicipal collaborations, provincial authorities, the Flemish Government, the federal government, etc.
What projects are eligible?
You can submit any design assignment – architecture, master planning, landscape design, etc. – to the Team Flemish Government Architect.
The Open Call is above all a procedure for projects with a fee higher than the threshold for federal contracting authorities (for 2024–25, €143,000 excl. VAT).
You will be assisted in the process and judging by people with experience and insight.
About the procedure
What type of procedure is the Open Call?
The design assignments of the Open Call are awarded through a competitive procedure with negotiation. The procedure specific to the Open Call is set out in the booklet:
How will the Team Flemish Government Architect support me?
Once you have registered your project with the Team of the Flemish Government Architect , the Team will contact you for an intake interview. During this and subsequent meetings, we will offer you support in determining the ambitions and course of the project. We will then set out both substantive aspects, such as the award criteria and the programme of requirements, and practical aspects, such as a fair tender fee, the fee and the timing, in a clear project definition and award guidelines.
We will then communicate the assignment via our communication channels. This marks the start of the market consultation. After this, we assist you in selecting the designers who will prepare a quotation and we organise the briefing and site visit together. A few weeks later, the designers will present their quotations and we will help you select and award the contract to a suitable designer. Even after the contract has been awarded, you can still call on our advice to ensure that your project runs successfully.
How does the Open Call procedure unfold?
The Open Call comprises several steps. You will find all the information about it on pages 6 to 15 of the Open Call information booklet.
How and when will my project be announced?
The Open Call is issued twice a year, in March and October. This happens via publication in the Bulletin of Tenders and via the Official Journal of the European Union, and this twice a year for a list of projects. We refer you to the online project dossiers on the website of the Team Flemish Government Architect.
How much does the Open Call cost?
Nothing! The services provided by the Flemish Government Architect, including the Open Call, are free of charge. The only costs associated with the Open Call are the tenderer’s compensations for designers who submit an offer and any external experts associated with the assignment.
Why is the client’s ambition so important?
Public clients bear a unique cultural responsibility because they build in consideration of their social mission. They have a mission and a vision and realize them partly through the way they build. More and more clients realize that a building assignment is about more than just meeting spatial and housing needs. They want their building project to help them be serviceable, recognizable and accessible. That is why, before they start building, exemplary clients formulate their ambitions and expectations in a project definition. This document then provides the framework for the client to choose a proposal that bears witness to their vision after the project presentations of the designers.
Why was the Open Call set up and how has it evolved?
The Open Call was set up by bOb Van Reeth in 2000 as an alternative to the ‘architectural competition’ which, to Van Reeth, was far from an ideal procedure: such competitions drew too many participants, plans were too detailed, there was no tenderer’s compensation, there was an obligation to implement what was put forward in the proposal phase, there was no dialogue between client and architect, etc. bOb Van Reeth put it clearly: with the Open Call, we are looking for a designer with a design vision, not a design.
Over the years, under the influence of the social and economic context, a changing legal framework and the visions of successive Government Architects, the Open Call procedure has also evolved. The initial objectives of the Open Call were brought back into focus in 2024 as a methodology that creates every opportunity for high-quality design while helping to develop an architectural culture in Flanders.
Why choose the Open Call? Get inspired
The only thing that made us hesitate was the fact that no experience in building a hospital was required. On the other hand, we wanted to avoid that our project was a copy of existing concepts. In order to achieve the desired innovation, we decided to join forces with the Flemish Government Architect.
Projects in the spotlight
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