The Ghent development, known as the Waalse Krook, is a multi-media cultural complex which will take up an area bounded by canals near the university and the Gent Zuid shopping centre. At one point the site was intended as a new music forum, and plans went all the way to the appointment of an architect, before financial and other problems put an end to the project.

The new complex will involve a restored Winter Circus – currently the location of an exhibition of photographs by star photographer Stephan Vanfleteren (see Flanders Today, last week) – as well as the new Library of the Future and a centre for new media. The Winter Circus, once doomed to demolition, will house an institute for the conservation of Flemish audiovisual heritage.

The project is expected to be completed in 2014 and is a cooperation between the city, the Flemish region, East Flanders province, Ghent University and the Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology. Former Ghent mayor Frank Beke chairs the association running the scheme.

The architects chosen are the Danish firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen; UNStudio, Amsterdam; Japan’s Toyo Ito & Associates; Aranda Pigem Vilalta from Spain; Coussée & Goris; and THV Mateus Beel. Aires Mateus Architecs of Portugal, which developed a cultural complex in Sines and the main library in Lisbon, is bidding in partnership with Stéphane Beel Architects of Ghent. Similarly, Aranda Pigem Villata, which has worked on libraries in Barcelona and Aalter, is working in partnership with the Ghent-based Coussée & Goris.

Toyo Ito is best known in Flanders for the Bruges pavilion, constructed for culture year in 2002 and already up for a €250,000 restoration announced last year. Schmidt Hammer Lassen have experience working on libraries in Denmark and Sweden, as well as the University of Aberdeen. The five competitors will be asked to submit plans, and a winner will be announced at the latest in mid-2010, according to the city’s culture alderman Lieven Decaluwe.

www.dekrook.be

meanwhile...

In Brussels, eight architectural offices have been named as candidates for the development of a major office and leisure complex on the Heizel plateau. Of the 28 who submitted files for consideration, eight stood out, Brussels mayor Freddy Thielemans said, announcing the winners. They are:

• AS. Architecture-Studio

• DPA-Dominique Perrault Architecture

• De Architekten Cie-Royal Haskoning consortium

• Gregotti Associati International and Ramboll UK Ltd. consortium

• Sum Project ARUP & Partners International Ltd – BDO Atrio nv consortium

• Ingeneria IDOM Internacional SA

• KCAP Architects & Planners

• OMA Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Arup/Sum are best-known in Belgium as having provided the alternative plan for the Oosterweel link to the Antwerp Ring, which resulted in a city referendum and the rejection of the original Lange Wapper viaduct plan. OMA is the office of celebrated architect Rem Koolhaas, who, apart from being responsible for the Ghent Forum and Seattle Public Library, will also be developing the restaurant facilities and open square to come in the Bozar complex in Brussels. KCAP built the eye-catching Red Apple building in Rotterdam, as well as the Science City in Zurich, and the Royal Docks development in London.

The competition will concern a complex involving the following mandatory elements:

• a conference centre whose main hall provides a minimum of 3,500 seats

• a shopping centre of up to 100,000 square metres (almost twice the size of the Wijnegem shopping centre) • a recreation and leisure centre incorporating sports facilities

• a concert hall seating 15,000, or twice as many as the Lotto Arena in Antwerp

• green spaces

Finally, the competition calls for plans for a 60,000-seat stadium, which is new: when the plans for the Heizel were announced in March, there was no mention of a stadium.

When, and indeed whether, it will appear is another matter. The go-ahead is contingent on Belgium’s success in its bid to host the 2018 World Cup. If that bid is successful, there will be no time to build a new stadium, so the existing Koning Boudewijn stadium will be given a facelift. If Belgium loses the World Cup, construction can go ahead.

In addition to those mandatory elements and the stadium, the complex would feature accommodation, “administrative areas”, a hotel complex and parking. The “administrative areas” may be a bone of contention. An initial plan to house offices of the EU on the plateau was severely criticised, not least because there are currently about two million square metres of office space in the Brussels area lying vacant.

Local people, meanwhile, have expressed concern that the development will lead to traffic congestion in their area. Shops are worried about the arrival of a major shopping centre. According to the Brussels Environment Council (BRAL), the views of locals are not being taken into account. The city, meanwhile, promised that the architects chosen would take full account of the views of local people.

Two of the eight offices will be chosen by a jury in March on the basis of the plans submitted, after which the development can start. The cost is estimated to be between €600m and €700m.

www.neobrussels.com