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.
