Architecture is the product of a combination of parties, of a process in which architects respond to their clients. Yet despite the attention paid to a few famed clients, like Truus Schröder, architecture is often examined and explained on the basis of the considerations of the architect, embodied in the object, and the ideas developed within the design discipline. This issue of OASE looks at the influence of the client on the way buildings or urban ensembles take shape. This is a historiographic revision: clients often prove to have creative impulses of their own, and their social views have had an impact on the evolution of architectonic cultures. The issue also includes conversations with clients who explicitly view their work as a contribution to the culture of building and the sustainable development of urban societies. In an era in which both clients and architects are compelled to reflect on their role and responsibility, a re-reading of architecture history from the perspective of the commission is more than necessary.

This interview with Marcel Smets, the former Flemish Government Architect (2005–2010), elaborates on the recent turnabout of Belgium with regard to the attention for the public domain. Since the 1990s the growing self-confidence of Flanders has been paired with an emerging interest in the significance of architecture as a possible expression of the region’s unique culture. The publication of the Flanders Architecture Yearbook, the installation of the Flemish Government Architect and his team, and the establishment of the Flemish Architecture Institute all represent a recognition of the cultural and social relevance of contemporary architecture in Flanders. Smets reflects on the challenge he faced as Government Architect to turn the Flemish Government into an exemplary building commissioning entity, by taking policy preparation initiatives and fostering a broader architecture culture in Flanders.