The Interior Architecture Department has been collaborating with the Royal Academy of Arts in Ghent (KASK) since 2021, with the participation of students from the Social Pedagogy and Marketing departments of Hogeschool Ghent (HOGENT), the parent university of KASK. This network also includes the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. Over the past three years, students have alternated between workshops in Belgium, Hungary and Tallinn.
From 18 to 22 March 2024, the first-year interior design students will be in Ghent, where an Erasmus BIP workshop will be organised by the HOGENT Department of Social Pedagogy. The focus of the workshop will be on the criminalisation of young people, detention centres and the potential of design and spatial practices to help young people integrate into society.
Belgium is a pioneering country in this respect, with a decreasing use of prison services to punish young people. The emphasis is on prevention and, once a young person has already gone astray, on different types of activities and facilities to help people cope better with life.