Special day at ZIN: placement of the symbolic first stone of the new office building

7 October 2021

On 7 October, Flemish Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Culture, Digitalisation and Facility Management Jan Jambon laid the symbolic first stone of the new office building, which by 2023 will be the workplace for 4,750 Flemish civil servants in Brussels.

On this occasion, Flemisch Prime Minister Jambon announced that the building will bear the name Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire. This name was chosen from a list of suggestions sent in by Flemish government officials. Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire (1853-1948) was one of the most influential women in Flanders at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
She played a pioneering role in the development of proper education for girls and founded several schools in Antwerp where Dutch was taught. Thus, girls were given training opportunities for higher education outside the traditional education and care professions.

The Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire building is part of the ZIN project, which includes not only offices and coworking spaces, but also living areas with flats, a hotel and shops.