Tailored architecture in Flanders: Sustainability, innovation, and craftsmanship

This month, we profile the best of tailored architecture in Flanders, an area which has undoubtedly earned its place at the forefront of European cutting-edge design.

NAV honours Callebaut-architecten, OMGEVING and Coussée & Goris with Jo Crepain Prizes

NAV, the Network of Architects in Flanders, is the largest professional federation of architects in Flanders. With the Jo Crepain awards, NAV highlights the region’s most innovative firms.

De Waalse Krook, Gent. In 2009 Coussée & Goris architects and RCR Aranda Pigem Vilalta Arquitectes won the competition for a new city library in the heart of the city. Engineering firms: Studieburo Mouton, VK Engineering. Landscape architecture: TV Coussée & Goris / RCR in collaboration with Technum.

The 2017 edition saw Callebaut-architecten from Drongen named Most Promising Start-up, OMGEVING from Antwerp scoop the award for Innovative Architectural Office and Ghent duo Ralf Coussée and Klaas Goris win the Career Award.

Choosing Coussé & Goris as Career Award winners was logical, explains architect and jury member Luc Binst. Binst ran the Crepain Binst Architecture office together with esteemed Belgian architect Jo Crepain until the latter’s death in 2008. “Ralf and Klaas are authentic and intellectual architectural personalities who maintain a straight and ethical line in everything: their innovative architecture, their management, their commitment to education.”

Zwin Natuurcentrum, Knokke-Heist. In 2011 Coussée & Goris architects won the competition for a visitor centre, connecting infrastructure and viewing centre in collaboration with GAFPA bureau for architecture and urban planning. Engineering: Studieburo Mouton, Kahle acoustics. Landscape design: Atelier Veldwerk, Sweco. Exhibition concept: Madoc, Koen Van Synghel. Selected for the Mies van der Rohe award 2016.

Projects by Coussée & Goris include the Zwin Nature Center in Knokke-Heist, the Waalse Krook in Ghent and the Hofheide crematorium in Holsbeek.

With the Jo Crepain awards, NAV wants to encourage architects who are pioneers in the fields of architecture, sophisticated business management and social engagement.

NAV represents more than 70 per cent of the architects in Flanders and Brussels with more than 3,000 affiliated architects. NAV is affiliated with UNIZO, the Union for Independent Entrepreneurs, and the Federation Vrije Beroepen. NAV has five branches in West Flanders, East Flanders, Limburg, Waasland-Antwerp and Flemish Brabant-Brussels.

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