Museum of Architecture

Location: Desguinlei, Antwerp, Belgium
Client:
Stage: design
Date: 2008

Next to the existing international center of arts De Singel, a museum for architecture designed to be part of the cultural cluster. The museum, built on the axes of the streets and the building of De Singel, is centered around a courtyard that leads visitors into the museum and to its gardens.

Situated at a crossing of four roads, the MUSARC creates an “anteplaza”, an intermediate square to meet, and presents itself as a reference building for the neighborhood. The different functions like the archive, exposition space and library are clearly identified by the differing heights and proportions of the different parts of the building.

Seen from the highway, the higher tower takes on a monumental character while the volume is lowered towards the street and embraces the trees on the side of the park with half open patios. Inside, the differentiation is continued in the spaces that draw natural light in different ways and propose varying circulation patterns for the visitors.