The academies of Music, Word & Dance and Fine and Applied Art in Heist-op-den-Berg together have about 2500 pupils. They have been housed in a single building for 35 years and because of the constantly increasing number of students have faced a worsening lack of space, so that a number of departments have already had to move to other locations. 

The aim of the local authority is that pupils should be able to obtain their education in a sufficiently spacious building that complies with current acoustic, energy and safety requirements and in addition has all the necessary facilities.

An internal report has shown that the academy needs an additional gross area of 2200 sq. m. as an expansion of the present building. The new part will serve mainly to house the Academy of Music, Word and dance. The existing part will be occupied by the Academy of Fine and Applied Art. The intention is that the two academies should be connected and able to share certain spaces to enable synergies to develop between them.

The site is in Oude Godstraat at the centre of the district, at the foot of the Heist hill. A master-plan for the centre has previously been drawn up, and it also included a plan for the academy and its role in the town centre, in which the Hill/Bergstraat/Cultuurplein/Stationsstraat axis functions as the backbone of the town centre.

The principal expects the designer, in addition to providing a proposal for the new building, also to put forward proposals for making the site open and accessible, for the organisation and design of the surrounding public space, and for its accessibility and openness to its users.

The result is intended to be a true arts campus, a meeting place for artists where there is easy interaction between the various disciplines taught.