In 2010, VK launched its new Strategic Business Plan, a 5-year plan with strategic outlines and ensuing operational objectives. VK wants, amongst others, to secure its knowledge and enhance its innovational approach, by creating VK Academy. With the arrival of Ann-Sophie Cremers as VK Academy manager in early 2011, VK Academy begins to take shape.

VK Academy wants to enhance the innovative capacity and efficiency of VK by encouraging all collaborators to learn in all possible ways and at every possible moment. The innovative solutions that VK puts forward, demand from its collaborators a constant acquiring and sharing of knowledge, and the development of talent. Through VK Academy, the VK collaborators will be able to enhance their professional capacities, continuously and on the job: by coaching from experts, by exchanging creative ideas with collegues and by cooperating with universities and clients. As such, we also build for our present and future collaborators an attractive working environment, where everyone can realise his/her aspirations.

VK Academy wishes to create a R&D culture in our offices in Belgium and abroad. To encourage the sharing of knowledge and ideas. To enable for learning and training to be intertwined in our daily activities. To have internal collaborators and external partners cooperate in creating innovative architecture and engineering.

VK Academy will apply itself to 3 subdomains:

• securing and developing state-of-the-art knowledge, and stimulating a creative stream of ideas within and outside of VK
• enhance the shared VK-aspiration for continuous improvement.
• enhance the leadership capacities of our collaborators, for an innovative and committed VK-culture

With these ambitions, VK Academy also wants to make an important social contribution: sharing our knowledge and talents with clients, suppliers, educational institutions and other stakeholders.

Therefore, an number of external lectures recently took place with input by VK:

April 11th, by project manager Stéphane Bussing, “Climatisation and energy performance of tertiairy buildings”, organised by and for Sogesmaint-CBRE .

April 8th: within the scope of the Princely Mission, Director Healthcare Stéphane Vermeulen delivered a lecture entitled ‘Innovative Healthcare Design for a prosperous Russia’. It was conducted at the Medical Postgraduate Faculty of Saint-Petersburg (MAPO) for a select public of medical staff and academics, in the presence of Princess Mathilde of Belgium.

April 4th and 5th: VK was the only Belgian architecture firm on the First Health Build Europe Congress in Nuremberg. It attended some very interesting lectures, expanding our knowledge of the healthcare-sector.

On March 4th VK’s marketing department organised a study day on PPP-constructions for a Russian delegation. City officials of Saint-Petersburg, authorized for Construction Projects, visited a PPP-case study in senior living, got an explanation on the Flemish approach by the PPP Knowledge Centre (prof. Van Garsse) and Dexia, and on the legal framework for such projects. The day was concluded by an official visit to Minister Vandeurzen, Flemish Minister for Welfare and Public Health, and a lunch with the Flemish Corporations Organisation.

March 3rd, dr.–engin. Erwin Theuns delivered the guest lecture “Elevators in high-rise blocks”, organised by the Catholic University of Leuven for the students of Architecture.

January 27th: Director Healthcare Stéphane Vermeulen delivered a lecture at the European Academy for Medicine of Ageing (in Martigny, Switzerland) about “senior friendly hospitals”, or how geriatric patients pose specific needs for hospital architecture.

November 8th 2010: principal engineer Wim Depraetere gave a lecture entitled “Sustainable skin” for the students of the Free University of Brussel (VUB) and the PHL University College. Case-study for this lecture was the award winning Infrax-project in Torhout.

October 14th, dr.-engin. Erwin Theuns conducted a lecture on Fire Safety Engineering entitled “Developing a construction project into a safe architectural plan” on the Fireforum 2010 Conference, organised by the npa FireForum.