Over a hundred VUB students of architecture and civil engineering-architecture are participating in an architecture week at Asiat Park in Vilvoorde from November 9th to 12th. This week marks the start of a broader collaboration between the VUB and Horst, a cultural platform also behind the eponymous art and music festival and a key partner in the development of Asiat Park. The initiative focuses on research and experimentation around current themes such as well-being, nature, and architecture.
Niels De Temmerman, professor of Circular Design and Construction at the VUB, emphasizes the importance of this collaboration: "The university is not detached from its environment. We want to actively share our knowledge with society and simultaneously learn from what happens outside our campus." Asiat Park offers students the opportunity to not only study and design temporary architecture but also to experience and test it in a concrete context, turning the environment into an 'idea laboratory'.
Under the title Re:connect, students are building a prototype of a bridge over a stream in Asiat Park. Jochem Daelman, general director of Onkruid (the organization behind Horst), describes Asiat Park as a place full of entrepreneurship, nature, and social stories, where there is always room for experimentation and where 'the right way' doesn't exist. This aligns with the ambition of Stad Vilvoorde to develop the former military site into a public space for meeting, creativity, and experimentation.
Mayor Jo De Ro of Vilvoorde, himself a former VUB student, welcomes the collaboration, seeing Asiat Park as a unique environment where research, creativity, and social engagement meet, connecting theory and practice. He hopes this is the first step towards bringing higher education to Vilvoorde.
In the coming months, further projects on mental well-being and nature are planned. On December 10th, the Islands of Hope congress will take place with Rob Hopkins as the keynote speaker. The VUB will bring together researchers, social actors, and companies to create new 'Islands of Hope'.
The collaboration with Horst, which began in 2026 with the Horst Festival where students developed designs for stages and pavilions focusing on circularity and material reuse, is seen as logical by Jochem Daelman. This provides students insight into the processes behind temporary festival architecture and infrastructure that can serve the community year-round.
During the festival, students will also participate in the Speaker's Corner, delivering concise and challenging speeches on social or political issues. The partners view this collaboration as a trajectory that can grow in the coming years, bringing research closer to society.
Journalists are invited to Asiat Park on Thursday, November 12th, for a press moment. At 4:30 PM, there will be a presentation and exhibition of the bridge designs, followed by interviews at 5:00 PM and the presentation of the Willy Van der Meeren Prize at 7:00 PM. Location: Asiat Park, Mechelsesteenweg 255, 1800 Vilvoorde.
