Twice a year, the Flemish Government Architect publishes a list of the projects which are open to architectural consultancies across the whole of Europe (not to mention the world, as we also see American and Japanese offices every so often). After going through the hundreds of candidates with their portfolios and proposals for the particular project, the Flemish Government Architect recommends 10 architectural consultancies to the commissioning team.

On the basis of their portfolios, 5 architects are awarded a limited commission, for which they are paid. The 5 architects are then invited by the commissioning team to an information session about the project's  parameters and a site visit. A few weeks later, a second briefing offers the architects the opportunity to ask the commissioning team, or the body concerned with the project, some very focused questions. Following this, the architects have three months in which to come up with a visualisation of the project.