Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST
02/11/2020.
[Ghent] Belgium
metalocus, MARÍA ANASTIDAS
metalocus, MARÍA ANASTIDAS
The British firm Carmody Groarke, led by Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke and the Belgian firm TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST, have won the expansion bid Design Museum Gent to include a new wing by the name of DING, (Design in Ghent), in Ghent, Belgium. The institution currently comprises three individual buildings, the new extension will improve circulation and link connection between current galleries.
The perimeter of the site is capricious and the plot is very limited. The narrow Drabstraat and the historic city, determines a nuanced answer of all shape parameters, especially the height limitation of the building is an important aspect. The design will ‘broaden’ the site and Hotel de Coninck and Huis Leten will be part of the visitor experience.
The perimeter of the site is capricious and the plot is very limited. The narrow Drabstraat and the historic city, determines a nuanced answer of all shape parameters, especially the height limitation of the building is an important aspect. The design will ‘broaden’ the site and Hotel de Coninck and Huis Leten will be part of the visitor experience.
Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST. Rendering by Filippo Bolognese
Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST. Rendering by Filippo Bolognese
Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST. Rendering by Filippo Bolognese
Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST. Rendering by Filippo Bolognese
Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST. Rendering by Filippo Bolognese
Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST. Rendering by Filippo Bolognese
Site plan. Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST.
Ground floor plan. Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST.
Floor plans. Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST.
Section. Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST.
Elevation, section and detail. Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST.
Axonometric concept. Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST.
Different stages. Design Museum Ghent Extension by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST.
Depending on where you are in the city – close by in the Drabstraat, in the courtyard garden, on the Graslei – the building, designed by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur and RE-ST, will attract you directly by showing you its activities, thanks to carefully constructed, wide openings in the facade, such as, the ‘cityroom’ on the ground floor, the workshop space on level +1 or the ‘loft’ on level +4.
The scheme will have its own street-level entrance so that it can also function independently from the museum. The project shows a curvilinear piece, executed with wooden ribs, that will be both a functional and a symbolic crown for the institution’s existing facilities, formed by a 19th-century hotel building and several expansions carried out in the course of the 20th century.
The new coronation makes a sculptural presence and its large openings from an auditorium will provide a spectacular lookout over the historical quarter of the Flemish city. The building is present in the city, paying special attention for the context.
The proposal was selected out of a pool of entries including proposals by other international teams, such as OFFICE and Assemble.
The scheme will have its own street-level entrance so that it can also function independently from the museum. The project shows a curvilinear piece, executed with wooden ribs, that will be both a functional and a symbolic crown for the institution’s existing facilities, formed by a 19th-century hotel building and several expansions carried out in the course of the 20th century.
The new coronation makes a sculptural presence and its large openings from an auditorium will provide a spectacular lookout over the historical quarter of the Flemish city. The building is present in the city, paying special attention for the context.
The proposal was selected out of a pool of entries including proposals by other international teams, such as OFFICE and Assemble.
Project description by Carmody Groarke
The Design Museum Gent, dedicated to the Belgian national collection of design culture, is accommodated within several historical listed buildings dating from 1755. These buildings form three edges of a picturesque formal courtyard, but the fourth edge of this courtyard stands as an incomplete part of the museum’s masterplan and a missing piece of the historic streetscape.
The project reconsiders the original museum masterplan, the connectivity of existing buildings and the presence of the museum within the city of Ghent. A new zero-carbon exhibition and events building will replace the vacant plot, creating a new entrance and circulation strategy for the entire museum.
The five-storey building will contain a stack of galleries and activity spaces, as well as a vast basement archive which provides visitor access to behind-the-scenes processes. Existing gallery spaces will be repurposed and expanded to show internationally significant collections in new and improved ways, broadening the museum’s programme of design culture and its visitor outreach.
Crowned with a ‘city room’ for public events, the building will be a new figure within the city skyline of Ghent. Compressed chalk bricks will give the elevations a strong sculptural presence whilst harmonising them within the surrounding eclectic yet domestic-scaled merchant houses. The exaggerated scale of the glazed depot door openings at each level will announce the museum’s status as a civic building. Structured and finished in timber, the new museum will have a unique and characterful identity with limited embodied carbon.
The project was won in collaboration with TRANS and RE-ST in an open international competition in 2019. It is due for completion in 2023.
More information
Architects
Client
Design Museum Gent.
Dates
Construction begins in 2021. If everything runs smoothly, the project could be realised by the end of 2023.
Carmody Groarke
Carmody Groarke is a London-based architectural practice founded in 2006 by Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke. The practice has developed a reputation for working internationally on a wide range of arts, cultural, heritage and residential projects.
Carmody Groarke have designed critically acclaimed buildings including Windermere Jetty Museum, the V&A Members’ Room and Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre Clatterbridge. The studio has designed projects for clients including artist Antony Gormley, British Land and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Current projects include a Temporary Museum for Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House, housing in Milan and a new international arts venue at Park Hill, Sheffield.
The practice has earned international recognition, winning several architectural competitions and awards for completed projects. Two monographs of the practice’ work have been published by the world renowned El Croquis and 2G.
Carmody Groarke have designed critically acclaimed buildings including Windermere Jetty Museum, the V&A Members’ Room and Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre Clatterbridge. The studio has designed projects for clients including artist Antony Gormley, British Land and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Current projects include a Temporary Museum for Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House, housing in Milan and a new international arts venue at Park Hill, Sheffield.
The practice has earned international recognition, winning several architectural competitions and awards for completed projects. Two monographs of the practice’ work have been published by the world renowned El Croquis and 2G.
Bram Aerts y Carolien Pasmans. TRANS architectuur I stedenbouw
TRANS architectuur I stedenbouw is a Ghent (B) based practice established in 2011. In a short period of time, the office has built up a strong reputation at the forfront of a much acclaimed generation of Flemish design practices.
Major competition wins include the Royal Institute for Theater, Cinema & Sound in Brussels, the Cultural Center Ensemble in Ghent, the mixed use Dockside tower in Brussels and the Leietheater near Ghent that recently opened to the public. Together with Carmody Groarke the office was selected as the winner of the international design competition for the Design Museum Ghent.
TRANS is a group of talented and highly motivated architects and urban planners. The partners, Bram Aerts and Carolien Pasmans, are always closely involved in every project.
Bram and Carolien are committed educators at the Catholic University of Leuven, the University of Antwerp and at the Rotterdamse Academie voor Bouwkunst. They both lecture internationally on architecture and urbanism.
TRANS was shortlisted for the EU Mies van der Rohe Award 2019, laureat for the Architecture Prize Flemish Brabant 2015 and 2017, the Belgian Buildings Awards 2019, the Real Estate Awards 2019, BigMat awards 2019. In 2019 TRANS was also selected as a finalist for the Jo Crepain Awards for most innovative practice in Flanders.
The work of TRANS is published internationally. In 2018, a first monograph on the work of the practice was published by the renowned publishers nai I 010. In 2020, Borgerhoff & Lamberigts and MER Paper Kunsthalle have published ‘As a Theatre’, a book about the Leietheater in Deinze, Belgium, designed by TRANS and V+.
Major competition wins include the Royal Institute for Theater, Cinema & Sound in Brussels, the Cultural Center Ensemble in Ghent, the mixed use Dockside tower in Brussels and the Leietheater near Ghent that recently opened to the public. Together with Carmody Groarke the office was selected as the winner of the international design competition for the Design Museum Ghent.
TRANS is a group of talented and highly motivated architects and urban planners. The partners, Bram Aerts and Carolien Pasmans, are always closely involved in every project.
Bram and Carolien are committed educators at the Catholic University of Leuven, the University of Antwerp and at the Rotterdamse Academie voor Bouwkunst. They both lecture internationally on architecture and urbanism.
TRANS was shortlisted for the EU Mies van der Rohe Award 2019, laureat for the Architecture Prize Flemish Brabant 2015 and 2017, the Belgian Buildings Awards 2019, the Real Estate Awards 2019, BigMat awards 2019. In 2019 TRANS was also selected as a finalist for the Jo Crepain Awards for most innovative practice in Flanders.
The work of TRANS is published internationally. In 2018, a first monograph on the work of the practice was published by the renowned publishers nai I 010. In 2020, Borgerhoff & Lamberigts and MER Paper Kunsthalle have published ‘As a Theatre’, a book about the Leietheater in Deinze, Belgium, designed by TRANS and V+.
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