VUB exclusive academic partner of Horst Festival

May 12, 2026

Brussels, 12 May 2026 - The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is this year, for the first time, exclusive academic partner of the Horst Arts & Music Festival, which runs from 14 to 16 May at the Asiat site in Vilvoorde. With student projects from the civil engineering-architect programme, the photo exhibition She is Science and an interactive Speakers' Corner, the VUB will bring science, architecture, art and social innovation together on the festival site. The VUB and Horst thus confirm their shared ambition to stimulate new forms of thinking, making and living together. For the VUB, the collaboration represents a unique opportunity to bring academic research and creativity directly into contact with a wide audience.

First-year architecture students design for the Asiat site

Within the collaboration, lecturers from the civil engineering-architect programme linked the design assignment of their first-year students to the Asiat site. Students were asked to design a pavilion that simultaneously connects with the city and the inhabitants of Vilvoorde, has a function for the festival and establishes a link with the VUB.

"The students learned that architecture can be more than a building," says lecturer Judith Cools, who supervised the design workshop together with colleagues Niels De Temmerman and Simone Valerio. "We wanted them to think about architecture as a social, circular and adaptable practice."

The students started from a thorough analysis of the site, its history and its users. A key requirement was that they made maximum use of existing materials on the site, fully in line with the circular vision of both Horst and the design studio.

This resulted in strikingly diverse and socially relevant designs. For instance, student Timo Baekelandt designed an intimate stage for ambient music, built around an existing red circle structure on the site. Leda Ricchiuti worked out a soundproof snoozing room with insulation made of unsold jeans from a thrift shop. Roos Vanderstichele devised a floating stage that simultaneously serves as a bridge over the Zenne, while Josefien Muller designed a multifunctional stage pavilion that plays with light and colour via recycled glass structures.

According to the lecturers, the projects show how young designers learn to deal critically and creatively with sustainability, reuse and public space already in their first semester. Several designs, meanwhile, were also presented to representatives of Asiat and the city of Vilvoorde and will thus be on display at the festival site during the festival.

Speakers' Corner stimulates debate and encounters

During the festival, the VUB will also organise a Speakers' Corner where students will be given a free stage to share their views on current affairs, politics, culture or philosophy of life with a self-written speech and get the audience thinking. Young people who dare to speak and listen as articulate and critical citizens. A unique opportunity to put freedom of expression into practice. Because although countless (social) media channels exist today, there are few authentic places where young people can truly speak freely in front of a listening audience.

The speakers also previously participated in the annual Students' Speakers Corner of the Universitaire Associatie Brussel, which links the VUB and Erasmus University College Brussels.

"She is Science" on the site

Besides architecture projects, the photo exhibition She is Science can still be admired on the Asiat site. Photographer Lieve Blancquaert made twenty portraits of female researchers for this at the request of the VUB. These are not only powerful images of confident scientists, but also personal stories of women of flesh and blood, who tell how they found their way in the scientific world and in life. The expo shows that there are a lot of women doing top-level science and pioneering work, it is an inspiration for younger generations.