Musée Aan de Stroom

• Date 2000 (not realised)
• Address Antwerp

At the end of 1989, the Stad aan de Stroom association and the City of Antwerp launched an international competition to build a large museum not far from the banks of the Scheldt, between the Bonapartedok and the Willemdok. The project, situated in the Eilandje area – a neighbourhood characterised by its docks and rich industrial heritage (part of which has been demolished, not without controversys) – aims to revitalise a vast space situated at the interface between the city and its port.

True to an approach that respects the Genius loci, Vandenhove has proposed a project that follows in the footsteps of the industrial buildings that have since disappeared. A vast hall extends horizontally across three levels. The basement houses educational spaces, a documentation centre and a conference centre. The ground floor is reserved for temporary exhibition spaces and visitor facilities (reception, toilets, bookshop, etc.). The permanent collections illustrating the history of the city of Antwerp are displayed on the first level and in a six-storey tower that serves as a landmark in the urban landscape. For the façades, Vandenhove employs a combination of glass and concrete. The horizontal section of the building favours concrete with inlaid bands of white marble. Natural light enters through a few openings in the façade but mainly via the roof, which consists of curved elements alternating between glazed and solid sections, reminiscent of the courtrooms in the Palace of Justice in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. Supported by concrete columns in Vandenhove’s characteristic style, the roofs consist of concrete shells clad in zinc on the outside. The tower is distinguished by large glazed bays that reveal the stairwells and offer a spectacular view to visitors ascending the floors. At the centre of the tower, an enclosed concrete core houses the permanent exhibition spaces. The competition, which attracted six entrants, was ultimately won by the Dutch firm Neutelings-Riedijck Architecten, and the museum was opened in May 2011.

• Description of the collection

  1 presentation pack

• Bibliography

  Project presentation dossier, Jeanne & Charles Vandenhove Foundation archives

• AUTHOR AND DATE OF THE ENTRY Sébastien Charlier, 2022