Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp
The invitation from the Flemish Government to participate in the design competition for the MHK A, the museum of contemporary art in Antwerp, was an honour and an exceptional opportunity to test our ideas about sustainability on the scale of a large cultural institution. We sought to design a low tech, low carbon, and low maintenance building; reimagining the links between art and ecology; and exploring how we could bring a pervasive publicness to the museum, making it truly a part of the city.
Programmatically the museum consists of a public base and an exhibition tower. A key feature of our proposal is how the publicness of the plinth is pulled up all the way to the top of the tower, through a series of highly legible and inclusive garden spaces, accessible for anyone who wishes to visit the building. This cascade of gardens is a sequence of break-out rooms that act as third spaces for the city, punctuating the visitor’s experience and alleviating museum fatigue.
The exhibition spaces are logically structured around a single, hard-working column that pierces through every floor, and works as a wayfinding landmark. Each floor has its own character and atmosphere. All galleries are naturally lit, through a combination of diffuse north light, light that is filtered through the gardens, and occasional moments of direct light.
The base can be entered from several sides, thereby blurring the boundaries between the institution and the city. It consists of a large hall that reaches into the basement, where the remnants of the old lock on this site has been exposed. From there, the central column rises up. The large hall is animated by a café, a restaurant, a shop, a large auditorium, seating areas and spills out into the park and the streets around the museum; conversely, the city is drawn into the large hall space.
The project prioritises low carbon materials including natural stone, wood, and lime-calcinated clay concrete, while also considering plant life as an integral element. The material palette balances heritage, sustainability, and ecological innovation – paying tribute to the past while shaping a sustainable future.
