FELT is a Ghent-based architecture and design studio founded in 2014 by Jasper Stevens and Karel Verstraeten. The collaboration began with Behind the Curtain, the installation that won the Interieur Award at the Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk. That same year, the duo won an Open Call competition for a primary school in Kortemark — a project that would later feature in the Architecture Yearbook Flanders and earn a nomination for the EU Mies Award.
Since then, FELT has built a diverse portfolio of public architecture, recognised through numerous Open Call and competition wins. Notable projects include the restoration and extension of the Leuven City Hall, the award-winning Villa Kameleon and the Artscampus Asse. In 2020, FELT received the ARC Young Talent Award from De Architect (NL), and a year later contributed two projects to Composite Presence in the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
The studio’s work ranges from architecture and urban design to interiors, furniture, and scenography. Across these scales, FELT explores how form, material, and atmosphere shape collective experience. Their first monograph, supported by the Flemish Government and the Flanders Architecture Institute, is published in 2025 — marking a decade of design driven by curiosity, precision, and public engagement.
The Arts Campus ‘Kunst-As’ anchors a growing cluster of cultural institutions in the centre of Asse. Its L-shape frames the protected chapel and completes the city block. On the outer corner, a small setback creates a forecourt that marks the public entrance and connects the street with the revived cloister garden. From here, a covered gallery leads visitors along the green interior towards the neighbouring library and cultural centre. In doing so, the project revives the heritage, opens up the formerly closed block and stitches itself into the surrounding urban fabric.
The façades respond to two very different contexts. Towards the inner court, a calm and open elevation of square prefab concrete elements sets a neutral backdrop for daily activity. Along the street, the rhythm tightens and the tone shifts to a warmer, pastel palette that picks up the colours of neighbouring buildings.
Across both sides runs a layered system of deep reveals, large square openings and a fine rhythmic delineation. The combination of concrete, soft ceramic tiles and elegant blue framework gives the campus a tactile identity: robust in structure, gentle in colour and clearly articulated in its proportions.
Inside, two parallel circulation routes branch out from the central foyer, connecting ateliers, rehearsal rooms and shared spaces. Transparent vitrines, exhibition walls and wide landings turn movement through the building into a sequence of places to linger, watch and show work.
This is a building that gathers multiple users under one roof, yet presents itself with a single, confident urban face. A new cornerstone for a civic landscape in transformation.
