The solar lamp Nomad by Belgian designer Alain Gilles is chosen as the best designed Flemish product of 2012. Each year Design Flanders selects the best designed products for their Henry van de Velde Labels. The public is invited to choose a winner out of these.

The Brussels based designer Alain Gilles, who's also elected as Belgian Designer of the Year 2012, created Nomad together with the company O'Sun. This solar lamp needs to bring light to people who don't have access to electricity or who are in an emergency situation. Thanks to a solar panel the lamp is charged. Although it can also be charged with an AC adapter or a vehicle's cigar lighter.

The lamp can be used by almost everyone, thanks to it's aesthetic look and multifunctional approach. When fully charged, it's giving light for more than six hours. Thanks to the use of led-lights, it's also ecologically friendly.

Out of 123 products, the jury of the Henry van de Velde Labels selected seven laureates. They can use the Henry van de Velde Label as a quality mark. The list of products of 2012:

1. Beams, radiators combined with bathroom accessories by Studio Seghers for Vasco
   
2. Museum in our street, social cohesion campaign on the streets in urban areas by Concrete for City of Antwerp & Design Vlaanderen
   
3. Garden reel, reel with garden hose by Concrete for ZEE
   
4. Marina, picnic bench, table and bucket seats by Bruno Fattorini & Partners for Extremis
   
5. Nomad, solar rechargeable and multifunctional lamp by Alain Gilles for O'Sun
   
6. Hybrid, folding knife by Filip De Coene
   
7. Subjective atlas of Hungary/Subjective atlas of Mexico by Annelies de Vet

Elien Haentjens

The images of 'Reading between the lines', an artwork by the Belgian duo Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, are going around the world. And it will only gain more fame, because the readers of the famous website ArchDaily have chosen the church as 'Building of the Year' in the category 'religious buildings'.

With 'Reading between the lines' Gijs Van Vaerenbergh created an object of art, that's beautifully corresponding with the surrounding rural landscape of Borgloon. Especially when the sun goes down. The model is based on the real church of Borgloon, which you can see in the distance. On a base of armed concrete the architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh have built a construction that consists of 30 tons of steel and 2000 columns.

Through the use of horizontal plates, the concept of the traditional church is transformed into a transparent object of art. First of all, 'Reading between the lines' is a visual experience in itself. At the same time, it's a reflection about architecture. But it's also more than that. It questions also the contemporary use of the numerous churches in Flanders that were built in the past, when Flanders was still a very catholic region. Nowadays we have to rethink the use of these churches.

Beleza joined the revealing of the project in September 2011, as part of the bigger project Z-OUT. With this project Z33, the house of contemporary art in Hasselt, wants to put art in public space in four regions in Limburg. The trajectory around Borgloon, called 'Pit', was the first to open it's doors. To announce the project, a very big yellow plastic duck called 'De Badeend' by Florentijn Hofman about which I was writing a catalogue, was floating on the rivers in Limburg.

Elien Haentjens