A Warehouse for Art
Flemish Museum of Contemporary Art
F. van Zelderen (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
S. Pietsch – Mentor (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
A.R. Thomas – Mentor (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
M. Parravicini – Mentor (TU Delft - Architectural Technology)
D.J. Rosbottom – Coach (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
M Pimlott – Coach (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
S. De Vocht – Coach (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
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Abstract
The new design for the Flemish Museum of Contemporary Art (VMHK) endeavoured to provide a contemporary interpretation of the nineteenth and twentieth century warehouse architecture, translated into a contemporary art museum. The 'Warehouse for Art' symbolizes its role as a repository for the museum’s knowledge and art, while at the same time identifying with the genius loci of the former port identity found along the Scheldt river and its surrounding brick buildings.
This industrial character is neutral, but not as aseptic as a characterless white cube and does not lose itself in architectural caprices. Moreover, the design its flexibility makes the building adaptable for its upcoming function as a museum and the ones after, thus making it future-proof.
Simultaneously, the design questions the conventional notion of a contemporary museum, aiming to transcend its exclusive institutional character and function as a public building instead. Within this pursuit of an 'anti-museum', the warehouse exemplifies a departure from the typical museum typology. Instead it represents a typology that contemporary art museums have discovered in industrial heritage and can fit into newly constructed buildings of the twenty-first century as well.