The two successive Flemish Government Architects Bob van Reeth and Marcel Smets each had their own approach and spearheads. After a decade of the institution of Flemish Government Architect, the time is ripe for a review of the institution, the method of the Open Call, and the results.

‘A Government Architect does not build’ was the conclusion of Bob van Reeth on the occasion of his resignation in 2005. He was appointed Government Architect in 1998 to turn the tide and to get the inadequate architecture policy of the government back on the rails. High-quality architecture is a choice of the principal and the government must assume its model role, Van Reeth believed.

The two successive Flemish Government Architects Bob van Reeth and Marcel Smets each had their own approach and spearheads. After a decade of the institution of Flemish Government Architect, the time is ripe for a review of the institution, the method of the Open Call, and the results.

‘A Government Architect does not build’ was the conclusion of Bob van Reeth on the occasion of his resignation in 2005. He was appointed Government Architect in 1998 to turn the tide and to get the inadequate architecture policy of the government back on the rails. High-quality architecture is a choice of the principal and the government must assume its model role, Van Reeth believed. His choice was not to build but to assist the principal. As a consultant, Van Reeth got under the principal’s skin. His successor Marcel Smets opted for a different approach in 2005: what he called ‘the cassis in the kir’. Smets has been at work for four years by now.