Antwerp Management School (AMS) has moved to a new building on Mechelseplein. Classes at the new venue will start on Monday September 3. The international students are the first ones to start their master-after-master in an innovative and sustainable learning environment in the center of the city.

For more than 2 years a lot of work has been put into the realization of the Boogkeers, Antwerp Management School’s new campus on Mechelseplein, on the site of the former OCMW buildings. The new Boogkeers is a sustainable, socially responsible property with respect for its historic value, as it combines newly built parts with the renovation of an existing building and the restoration of historic heritage.

Geert Vyncke, the project’s principal: “The AMS open house philosophy will fully reveal itself in the new building. The aspects ‘light, air, live and learn’ are the central themes in this design, which is what you experience when you enter the building. The large windows connect you instantly with the bustling city center. The firm of architects HUB designed the building and MBG carried out the building work.”

AMS staff already moved in at the end of August. For them this also means the start of a new way of working. NWOW – New Way of Working – is based on the principles of flexibility and mobility, which benefits cooperation between colleagues and with clients, by working in an informal atmosphere, in an open and dynamic work environment with specific work places fitted to each task or activity.

On Monday September 3, the school will really come to life as AMS welcomes a new class of master-after-master students. During the three ‘Onboarding Days’, 230 students from 35 different nationalities will get to know the school, the AMS team and Antwerp. For three days they will be immersed in sustainable transformation, business design thinking and presentation techniques: knowledge and skills that they need to acquire straight at the beginning of the program. Later in September the executive programs for professionals will also start in this unique learning environment.

Prof. Steven De Haes, the new AMS dean as of October 1, is delighted with the new campus: “This location gives us the opportunity to keep growing and to tighten our bonds with the Antwerp ecosystem. Our new site in this world port city is also a great operating base to continue our international expansion. I am particularly looking forward to the official inauguration of the building on February 22, 2019, when the restoration of the monumental part will be finished. That’s also when we will put the spotlight on all our partners who have been essential to bringing this project to a happy conclusion.”