Aah, I thought YU’d never ask.
Finally. The second most important question in the entire YUNIVERSE: What is a YUNATIC?
And as YU can already guess… It starts with YU.
There’s actually a chance YU are one as well. But know this: being a YUNATIC is the nec plus ultra, as my husband likes to say. The next level.
A YUNATIC is someone who sees possibilities long before the rest of the world catches up.
They are not interested in looking successful. They are interested in making things work. A true YUNATIC cares more about creating something meaningful than collecting status symbols.
And that takes Courage. A lot of it. Because following a vision nobody else can see is not for the faint-hearted. Especially when people are laughing at YU. And they usually do.
YUNATICS are often misunderstood. Their struggle is real. Yet they keep building.
No bling bling. Just people obsessed with making things better. The real work. The kind of work that often takes years before people suddenly say: “Wait… this is actually brilliant.”
And they use their brainpower a lot. Or like my dad always used to tell me:
“Nikki, use your mayonnaise!”
And strangely enough, Belgium has produced quite a few people who did exactly that.
The funny thing is that Belgians have a curious habit: we often overlook our own talent while admiring it abroad.
Take Christophe Lenaerts, who helped build one of the world’s first streaming platforms (or I believe it was it the very first…) and once presented alongside Steve Jobs. Christophe always stayed hungry and foolish.
Or Philippe Ophoff from Rupelmonde, who developed the scrolling advertising systems that later appeared in bus shelters around the globe. Back in 02008 we got to design his headquarters. And now we’re working on stations for public transport over water. But that’s another story.
Or Antoon Van Coillie who is known for his visionary ZULU concept. He was Koen Van Grimbergens very first client, right before Koen and I became a couple. But that’s also another story. (A really good one actually, but not for now.)
Different sectors. Completeley different personalities. All fascinating stories. All weirdos.
Yet they all share the same ability: They see something others cannot yet see.
One of the best examples is Jan Vandersypen from AQUATREAT. A YUNATIC avant la lettre.
(We will do a special edition about him and his daughter Tinne Vandersypen, who inhereted his brainpower, later this year.)
Already in 02013, we were allowed to design an industrial headquarters for Aquatreat with what was, at the time, an absurdly low carbon footprint: less than 500 tonnes of CO₂. (buildings like that are normally around 3000 tonnes)
At a moment when most people were still saying: “Ca-ca-carbon what?”
Jan was already doing it. While being laughed at. He wanted an industrial building that was off-grid, energy intelligent, largely built in solid wood and equipped with certified zero water emission systems.
Do YU know many industrial companies doing that today? Exactly.
During every energy crisis, it suddenly becomes Jan’s time to smile. Because while others optimized for short-term profit, he optimized for resilience decades ago. Even today, that building remains miles ahead of many developments being built.
And perhaps that is what defines a YUNATIC best : vision. The ability to keep moving forward when nobody else sees what YU see.
Until one day reality catches up. ‘First they laugh. Then they copy.’
But the strange thing about YUNATICS is that they rarely call themselves visionaries.
Usually they’re too busy working. And somehow…
They also seem to share the same weird sense of humor. The kind of humor YU develop after spending years explaining impossible ideas to very serious people in very grey meeting rooms.
Because every YUNATIC knows :
If YU don’t laugh during the impossible parts… YU probably won’t survive them.
Good thing we speak the same language.
We all speak YUGENING.
*****
My name is Veronica.
I am one of Véronique Orens’ alter egos. Or as she prefers to call them: Architypes. These Architypes (with an “i”, because the ArchEtypes already belong to Carl Jung. But don’t ask me how the pronunciation is any different), were created from Architecture. Hence the ‘i’ in Architype.
There are 9 Architypes in total. YU will get to know them one by one. And yes, we know. It’s a lot to take in. An architect with 26 years of experience, once considered a highly respected professional, suddenly showing up with 9 alter egos after two years of isolation…
It does sound slightly insane.
That’s why we call it ; The Crazy Circus. Yes, we have gone bonkers and we love it. Maybe the world could use a little more beautiful madness right now.
I myself represent the Architype of Curiosity. I have always loved curious people. The nerds. The passionate misfits. Hence the red dress and the ‘sexy’ name ‘Veronica’, referring to Veronica Lake. Because she had a high IQ but didn’t look like the stereotypical “nerd.” And that’s exactly the point. There are countless brilliant women out there constantly being underestimated because of the way they look. Too beautiful to possibly be intelligent.
But the same thing happens to men who managed to keep a soft heart in a world that often rewards emotional distance. Somewhere along the way, vulnerability and empathy became mistaken for weakness. And seriousness for intelligence.
That story is getting old. It’s time for a new story..
