Partners
Wallonie - Bruxelles International
Place Sainctelette, 2
B 1080 Brussels
T+32 2 421 82 11
wbi@wbi.be
www.wbi.be
WBI is the agency responsible for Wallonia and Brussels international relations. It acts as an international policy instrument for Wallonia, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the French Community Commission of the Brussels Capital Region.
Under agreements with 70 countries and regions, WBI supports creators and entrepreneurs from Wallonia and Brussels. The aid is intended to stimulate networking and marketing.
Wallonia-Brussels International has set up an office to promote Wallonia-Brussels artists across borders.
This office informs you of the different forms of support for international visibility offered by WBI. It also directs you towards the specialised agencies serving cultural operators in Wallonia-Brussels. Three performance venues in Paris, Avignon and Kinshasa have the role of giving visibility to our artists.
As the public authority in charge of international relations in Wallonia-Brussels, WBI has a network of General Delegations abroad. Their mission is to support creators, contribute to socio-economic development, promote mobility, defend values, enhance skills, encourage the dissemination of culture, promote higher educational institutions and support scientific and technological cooperation in French-speaking Belgium. All in a spirit of cooperation and mutual assistance. The Wallonia-Brussels General Delegations are an ideal interface for anyone who has ideas and wishes to implement them beyond the borders of Wallonia-Brussels. Do not hesitate to get in contact with them, they are there to help you realise your projects abroad.
Assistance and services
The assistance and services offered by Wallonia-Brussels International are listed below, by artistic discipline. The forms of support include: attendance at an event abroad, taking part in a prospecting mission, hosting foreign schedulers in Wallonia-Brussels, etc.
cellule.archi from Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Boulevard Léopold II, 44
B 1080 Bruxelles
T+32 2 413 26 05
www.cellule.archi
The archi.cell supports public sponsors that wish to ensure their investments are part of an approach that guarantees architectural quality. Its work is comparable — for the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and local authorities in Wallonia — to that of the Bouwmeester/Master Architect of the Brussels-Capital Region and the Vlaams Bouwmeester in Flanders, while also supporting the architecture cultural sector.
Missions
Based on the conviction that architecture defines the quality of our living environment, in its spatial, functional as well as cultural dimensions, the Architecture Cell’s missions are built around three main objectives. The Architecture Cell also co-manages the Wallonia-Brussels Architecture (WBA) export agency with Wallonia-Brussels International (WBI).
I. To guarantee architectural quality in buildings and spaces accessible to the public by promoting creative architecture that incorporates environmental and energy performance, and by involving the disciplines associated with architecture, such as landscape, furniture and signage design, scenography, etc.
To achieve this, the Architecture Cell supports the implementation process for contracts to appoint designers (assistance in drafting programmes, identification of constraints, establishing conditions conducive to the smooth running of competition between teams, communication, etc.). The aim is to make the buildings of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, those that it co-finances and whose design it supports, an example for the community.
The Architecture Cell has developed a series of standard documents in a practical guide (choice of procedure, specifications, timeline, jury organisation, framework for bid pre-analysis, examples of selection and award reports, etc.) that facilitate the work of local operators. Meetings with the Walloon regional authorities have also made it possible to clarify its position, which is now in line with this manner of proceeding.
II. To support and develop the integration of works of art in public buildings.
III. To promote architecture as a cultural discipline, through a policy of implementation and support for both public and private initiatives involved in the identification, promotion and enhancement of architecture and its associated disciplines. The actions identified, whether they emanate from civil society or from the Ministry’s own initiative, fall under the following headings:
- Debate, reflection and research
- The identification and promotion of contemporary heritage
- Architecture news
- Emergence
- Raising awareness among children and schools
- Architecture archives
Dissemination promoting the use of transversality:
- With the audiovisual media
- With photography
- With writing and publishing
The international sphere
- The Venice Architecture Biennale, in collaboration with Wallonia-Brussels International
- Wallonia-Brussels Architecture (WBA)
- The European Forum for Architectural Policies/Le Forum Européen des Politiques Architecturales (EFAP-FEPA)
Other one-off events
Partnerships
The Architecture Cell has developed an editorial division, supporting the themes of its policy: architecture news, with the triennial collection Architectures Wallonie-Bruxelles Inventaires # Inventories offering a snapshot of production in French-speaking Belgium, and the monographic buildings collection, Visions. Public architecture, the Prix de la maîtrise d'ouvrage publique (public project contracting prize) collection and the collection dedicated to the challenges of public housing in Wallonia (published in partnership with the Société wallonne du Logement); support for the integration of works of art in public buildings with the I.O.A. (art work integration) collection specifically dedicated to this; support for multidisciplinarity, with the Fenêtre sur qui décloisonne les pratiques et le regard (Window over those who open up practices and perspectives) collection; identification and promotion of contemporary heritage, with the collection of guides to modern and contemporary architecture and Wallonia and Brussels (Liège, published in 2014, Mons & Cœur du Hainaut in 2015, Tournai & Wallonie-Picarde and Charleroi Métropole in 2017), support for the publication of architects’ monographs from the second half of the 20th century, raising awareness of the conservation and enhancement of architectural archives; and finally, international promotion, with titles relating to the Venice International Architecture Biennale or one-off events abroad.
Each edition is systematically commissioned from authors, photographers and graphic designers, and occasionally co-editions and institutional partnerships. Aware of its public service role, the Cell intends to support the stakeholders in the French-speaking Belgian publishing industry by asking new questions about purpose and form.
Wallonia Export Investment
AWEX
place Sainctelette,2
B 1080 Brussels
T + 32 2 421 82 11
info@awex.be
www.awex.be
The Walloon Export Agency (AWEX) is in charge of the development and management of Wallonia’s international economic relations.
AWEX has the following competencies:
- The promotion of Walloon exports, for which it acts as a full support partner for the Walloon exporter,
- Attraction of foreign investment in Wallonia, for which it acts as a one-stop shop for all potential investors,
- Promotion of the ecosystem of innovation and creativity as well as the integration of companies and operators in international innovation networks,
- Coordination and dissemination of the regional brand policy.
AWEX can provide support at all stages of an export process (information, coaching, training, consultancy, marketing and sales, financing, etc.). It offers you a wide range of financial and non-financial assistance and services to encourage your international development.
AWEX is supported by a hundred Economic and Trade Advisors (ETA), spread over the 5 continents. These cover some 120 countries and 20 international organisations.
Although the ETAs represent Wallonia at international level, they above all take on several essential roles for companies’ international development:
- information and monitoring foreign countries,
- writing market studies,
- assistance with prospecting during collective missions (with AWEX supervision) or individual company missions (targeted appointment programme),
- assistance in the field (logistics, linguistic, legal, financial awareness survey, etc.)
- provision of a reception area at thirty offices, accessible to Walloon companies that are in an intensive prospecting phase on a market (Welcome Office).
- etc.
Hub Brussels
chaussée de Charleroi, 110
B 1060 Bruxelles
T 32 2 800 40 00
info@hub.brussels
http://hub.brussels
Since 1 January 2018, Atrium Brussels, Brussels Invest Export and Impulse Brussels have been brought together to form a single agency for business support: Hub Brussels.
The new structure is created from the services offered by existing organisations to advise and support potential entrepreneurs and companies throughout their life cycle, in all aspects of their needs: receiving advice in starting their business, developing their innovation potential, reviewing their strategic positioning, being part of a business ‘cluster’, getting support with their international activities, and being assisted with difficulties or in the transfer of their business.
From now on, companies will find all the solutions within one organisation which will be able to provide more personalised support for them with regard to their multiple needs.
They facilitate your access to both the authorities and companies in the country thanks to their local customer portfolio and knowledge of local customs.
Hub Brussels relies on its Economic and Trade Attachés (ETA) who are based all over the world and are your contacts and intermediaries on foreign markets.
They will guide you on the specific features of the different markets and help you to refine your export project: regulations, competition, access conditions, permits, etc.
They offer you personalised support whether in Brussels during the Contact Days or in the field, on an individual prospecting trip, economic mission or at trade fairs or exhibitions.
