Antwerpen - MHKA

The study contract for the construction of a new Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp was awarded to an international and multidisciplinary team around the Antwerp-based firm Bovenbouw Architectuur and the Basel, Switzerland-based architects Christ & Gantenbein. The selection and awarding committees were chaired by the Flemish Government Architect. The project will be realised as a construction team, which means that the client (the Flemish government), the selected design team and the contractor will cooperate intensively already at an early stage. The contractor will be appointed in a subsequent phase.

Bovenbouw Architectuur is known in our country from various public projects, including in the cultural sector, and was allowed to represent our country at the Biennale Architettura in Venice in 2021. For this project, the firm has joined forces with the Swiss firm Christ & Gantenbein, which already has a lot of international experience in museum construction, including the extensions of the Kunstmuseum Basel and MACBA in Barcelona. The designers are incidentally assisted by a large team of experts: Ney (stability), Waldhauser+Hermann (techniques concept), Arcade (techniques elaboration, study security, BIM management and EPB), Macobo (acoustics), Jensen Hughes (fire safety engineering), Jaspers-Eyers (process management, cost control, risk management, quality control), Atmos (sustainability), Robin Winogrond (landscape design), Beersnielsen (museum lighting).

The new M HKA will be a high-rise volume on the current site of the Hof van Beroep on the Waalsekaai in Antwerp. This site was chosen because it marks a pivotal point between the newly constructed Scheldekaaien (quays) and the new Zuidpark, and so that the museum would remain well anchored in the art and culture district Het Zuid.

The new M HKA will include a wide range of functions and facilities to present contemporary art in a qualitative and sustainable way. The museum will provide space for both the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, for various events, and will also include a café, dining facilities and a museum shop. Finally, the museum will have high-quality workspaces and logistics facilities to support day-to-day operations and management. The new M HKA will be a flexible and future-oriented building, designed to evolve with the times and the changing needs of the art world and the public.

The selection and award committees were chaired by the Flemish Master Builder. Six teams were selected from the various candidates who presented their vision to a professional award committee in September 2024. Based on the advice of the award committee, the Flemish Government confirmed the choice of design team and design vision in January 2025.

Bovenbouw Architecture and Christ & Gantenbein convinced the awarding committee with a strong reading of the urban context, generous gestures towards the neighbourhood, openness to a design process in intense dialogue with the client, a sustained focus on an optimal art experience averse to spectacle, and with a thorough attention to a stimulating working environment and sustainable construction.

M HKA is a museum of contemporary art based in Antwerp. The Zuid (South) area of Antwerp is a vital residential district, located on the river Scheldt and home to many restaurants, art galleries and other cultural institutions. M HKA is the museum of contemporary art of the Flemish Community. The construction of a new building offers the unique opportunity to further expand the museum as an institution and to position it better on the international stage. The Flemish Community takes this decision in execution of the recent decretal classification of M HKA at an international level of excellence. The future project starts from the institutional history of the museum, the existing collection and its current profile.

Antwerp is strategically located in the Delta of the Low Countries. The port forms a gateway to the European continent and lies in direct proximity to Amsterdam, Paris and the German Ruhr area. The museum is moving to a location a stone’s throw from its current address. The new museum is set to be erected on the site of the former court of appeal and labour court, built on the Zuidersluis lock, which once upon a time formed the entrance to the three Zuiderdokken (South docks) and gave its name to the museum area. The courthouse lies on a central location between the planned urban park Dok Zuid and the Scheldt quays, two important urban projects which are currently in full development. Thanks to its position, the new museum will form a hinge between both. The principal expects that the construction of the museum will generate added value for the current developments. The project area is therefore conceived more broadly than the current block. The locks complex, which is preserved underground, forms the connection between the Scheldt and the former Zuiderdokken and presents a significant heritage value. The museum wishes to root itself in and connect with the city.

M HKA is a relatively young museum of art. In its current form, it has existed since 1983. The museum grew out of the collection bequeathed by the Gordon Matta-Clark Foundation and is the successor of the ICC, the legendary International Cultural Centre on the Meir. The museum explicitly chooses to relate to its institutional history and wishes to see aspects of that history reflected in the new building.

The museum will be similar in scale to such institutions as MACBA in Barcelona or the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw. The M HKA has gradually acquired a highly discursive and international profile. Thanks to, among others, its participation in L’Internationale (a confederation of museums that wishes to pursue the tradition of medium-sized European museums of contemporary art), the institution combines its focus on the public with a critical sense of development. Compared to multinational museums and globally operating institutions, M HKA has a rather querying profile in terms of contemporary art and heritage activities.

As a Cultural Heritage Institution of the Flemish Community, the mission of the museum became more ambitious. Via the new construction project, with an estimated total surface area of maximum 20,000 m2, Flanders wishes to give an important impulse to cultural policy. The mission of M HKA is to further expand the collection of contemporary art of the Flemish Community and to manage its collection, to show the collection in a permanent display, to present itself more explicitly as a research institution, and to set up an archive department for visual arts.

Four important sub-activities are defined in the museum’s organization plan: the collection activities, the library/archive, the exhibition activities, and the forum. They each follow a different logic. They represent four components or ‘atmospheres’ with other qualities and gradations of public accessibility. They are therefore subject to other usage regimes and require different levels of equipment. In other words, the sub-activities suppose a different architectural definition.

The forum provides space for temporary events and reception of the public. The events capacity is a vital and representative part of the museum activities.

The exhibition component is a platform that can host a seasonal and rapidly changing exhibition programme.

The backbone of the collection component is a permanent, or slowly changing collection display. It is where the collection is shown and set in a historiographic narrative.

The library/archive component supports the research activity of the institution and is the most intimate public space. It comprises the former library of the museum and the documentation centre of the ICC. As research infrastructure, it must support the further development of the Centre for Art Archives.

Flanders is looking for a design team that can translate the demands of the principal into a multipurpose and efficient infrastructure and that will provide the desired institutional profile with the appropriate architectural aura. The principal attaches great importance to the process-readiness of the design team and expects the design to come into being in close dialogue with the principal.

Given the museum programme, the project lends itself to the setting-up of a process with input from artists. However, the choice of the artist or artist contribution will preferably occur in close consultation with the principal. It is therefore preferable that potential collaborations should not be arranged beforehand.

Sustainability is of paramount importance. The principle PEOPLE PLANET PROFIT must be found in the building to be constructed. To achieve this aim, the GRO sustainability metre must be used in the preparation of this file.