Our competition entry for the new Museum in Louvain-La-Neuve in Belgium is both an urban design and an architectural proposal. The project is based on the conviction that the Museum on the site is a unique opportunity to create a link between this university town (built in the 70s) and the lake.

The building, instead of being placed along the front of teh lake as asked for by the competition brief, is a 123m long gallery, set along a new open garden gently sloping towards the lake.

The building is designed as a gallery with a colonnade facing the garden; it offers a continuous public space at ground level (entrance, atrium, restaurant etc..) connected with the new garden, while flexible top-lit gallery spaces are located above, offering a variety of spaces and view towards the lake and the university town.

The project was selected following a first stage urban-design competition for the second stage of the competition.

The project team included Belgian architects DDV, environmental engineers Battle McCarthy (uk), Coppee Courtoy (Belgium), and quantity surveyors Widnell Europe.

Photography: Adrian Wolfson