The 'In Flanders Fields Museum' has an international reputation and since it opened in 1998 has welcomed at least 200,000 visitors per year. The museum and the visitor centre for Ypres and the Westhoek are currently housed in the historical Cloth Hall on the Market Square. The building of a cultural centre to be completed by 2010 will mean that some of the rooms in the Cloth Hall will be vacated. Ypres town council wants to make use of this unique opportunity to create an extended and completely new 'In Flanders Fields Museum' by late 2011 or early 2012. A new visitor centre for Ypres and the Westhoek and a new First World War documentation centre will be created in the Cloth Hall in conjunction with this.

By means of this project, Ypres town council aims to retain the international appeal of the town and the area and to perpetuate the success of one of the most important cultural tourist attractions in Flanders.

The brief comprises the restoration and redesign of the Cloth Hall with an eye to the new museum. One of the big challenges will be the creation of a new and logical visitor circuit to gear all the different functions to each other. The best possible location has to be sought for the visitor centre with its public and office areas, a documentation centre with offices for the municipal museum department and specialised storage spaces, ticket office, cloakroom and museum café.

This brief does not include the design of the museum itself or the permanent regional exhibition in the visitor centre. A designer for the new museum layout will be sought in a separate procedure as from January 2009.