The Design Museum Gent , in the East Flanders' capital, is set to reopen this coming weekend after four years of renovations. The museum has been completely renovated and expanded to include an additional building. The façade features 82,000 bricks made in Ghent from construction waste. The refurbished Design Museum Gent will showcase 500 objects, nearly half of which the museum has never exhibited before.
The refurbished Design Museum Gent now covers an area of approximately 6,500 square metres and has a total of around 3,700 square metres of exhibition space.
A new building has been added to the museum. This connects the existing buildings and provides space for lectures, workshops and events. On the 4th floor, there is an events space with a panoramic view over the fair city of Ghent.
The museum has a collection totalling 24,000 design pieces. 500 objects will be on display. Almost half of these have never been exhibited by the museum before.
10 unique loos
“I began a feasibility study in 2015,” explains director Katrien Laporte. “To identify what our needs were. And now, 11 years later, here we are in the new Design Museum Gent.”
“A great deal has changed. The building now fulfils a number of functions it didn’t have before. We didn’t have proper toilets, we didn’t have a lift, and we didn’t have a space for lectures, debates and events.”
“The new building is a very warm, accessible building, constructed entirely of timber. We also want it to make a statement. Design used to have an elitist image. This building will help to bring it down from its pedestal.”
‘You really do have to revisit the museum several times if only for the toilets. We have 10 different toilet cubicles, each with different tiles. It’s very tongue-in-cheek. And when you’re sitting on the loo, you can scan a QR code to find out how the tile was made.’
Opening festival
This coming weekend, the Design Museum Gent will reopen with a major opening festival lasting nine days.
There are more than 120 activities, including performances, music and workshops. Thirty-three shops and hotels in Ghent are transforming their shop windows into temporary exhibitions.
The festivities kick off on Friday evening with a performance by the Ghent-based brothers of 2manydjs. They will be playing from the balcony of the new building. On Sunday, between 10.00 and 16.00, local designers will be showcasing their work at 60 stalls at the Design Makers Market.
Admission to the museum and the exhibitions is free during the opening weekend.