Ghent's Design Museum Reopens as the City's Autumn Architecture Season Launches

Ghent's Design Museum — the largest of its kind in Belgium — has reopened after a revamp led by British architects Carmody Groarke with local firm Atama, timed to a season of exhibitions across the city that runs into 2027.

The museum project combined expansion, consolidation and heritage restoration by specialist studio Re-st. A new circulatory loop cuts through the museum's existing historic buildings, completed by a new low-carbon entrance wing.

Ghent is known for its UNESCO World Heritage monuments, including the medieval Gravensteen castle and the 15th-century Gothic St Bavo's Cathedral, home to the famed altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers. But the city also holds a dense cluster of modernist and contemporary architecture worth the trip.

What has architect Glenn Sestig built in a former supermarket?

This year, Belgian architect Glenn Sestig converted a former supermarket into an experimental gallery named THE GET, adjoining his new office. The raw, large-format space has a black-stone entrance and is designed for collaborations.

Its inaugural exhibition paired the design duo Middernacht & Alexander with multidisciplinary artist Bernard T. Sestig. In October, the exhibition 'Wunderkammer Reimagined', curated by Scott Lippens — founder of Antwerp's Uppercut Gallery — assembles a contemporary cabinet of curiosities with work by Linde Freya Tangelder, Wendy Andreu, Minjae Kim, Lionel Jadot, Lukas Gschwander and Kiki Goti, among others.

'Wunderkammer Reimagined' opens 2 October 2026 at THE GET, Sint-Annaplein 7, 9000 Ghent.

How did S.M.A.K. send art into Ghent's living rooms?

In 1986, S.M.A.K. museum director Jan Hoet invited art to leave the museum walls and enter the homes of Ghent. Fifty-one artists — including Janis Kounellis, Maria Nordman and Lawrence Weiner — were paired with homeowners to create site-specific works inside a single 'guest' room. The city-wide exhibition drew queues of curious locals and became so popular it was televised.

An exhibition now marks the project's 40th anniversary with archive material and new installations by Heike Pallanca, Haim Steinback and Susanne Kreimann. Daniel Buren's 1986 contribution, reconstructed in 2011, is also on display: a replica of the guest room he installed at the home of art collectors Anton and Annick Herbert. Titled 'Le Décor et son Double', the dual room is identical except for its inverse pink wall painting — a critique of the public and private display of art.

'Chambres d'Amis turns 40' runs at S.M.A.K., Jan Hoetplein 1, until 10 January 2027.

Why is the Herbert Foundation showing 22 Warhol films?

The Herbert Foundation occupies the former home of collectors Anton (1938–2021) and Annick Herbert (1940–2025), converted in the 1980s with architect André Platel from a 1920s frame factory. Its large factory rooms display minimalist, conceptual and abstract works collected between 1968 and 1989 by Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Bruce Nauman, Franz West and Thomas Schütte.

Open to the public since 2013, the foundation this autumn presents 22 Andy Warhol films on loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, alongside books, magazines and posters from its own collection. The Herberts treated printed matter as an art form in its own right: 'The archives for us constituted an answer to the balloon of power and money that threatened the art world. Documents are about the substantive essence, devoid of spectacle.'

'All Tomorrow's Parties. Films and documents of Andy Warhol' runs 27 September 2026 – 27 June 2027 at Coupure Links 627/A.

What is happening to Henry van de Velde's Book Tower?

The Boekentoren, a concrete early-modernist icon designed by Henry van de Velde (1863–1957) between 1930 and 1935, stacks the university's books, manuscripts and architectural plans into a soaring 20-storey, 64-metre tower. Light-filled reading rooms stretch horizontally at ground level, and above the stack sits the panoramic Belvedère, a cinematic event space once commandeered by the Nazis.

Ghent architects Robbrecht en Daem have led a restoration since 2007, including a new three-level, climate-controlled underground depository beneath the historic courtyard holding 40 km of books, manuscripts, coins, newspapers and magazines. A future reading café and visitors centre will open the tower's stack to the public — currently accessible only in small groups.

How did a circus become a start-up hub?

Ghent's 19th-century Wintercircus — reconstructed in the 1920s and turned into a car garage after WWII — has been transformed again. Commissioned by the City of Ghent and operated by TENT, a consortium of entrepreneurial local businesses, it now hosts co-working spaces, a rooftop bar and an underground club, built for cross-pollination between start-ups, students, creatives and the public.

A collaborative team including BARO, SUMProject and Atelier Kempe Thill adapted the building in the De Krook neighbourhood, preserving its layered heritage: the steel roof structure, red concrete floors, former elephant ramps and original petrol pumps. OYO Architects designed the interiors around reuse, employing demolition debris, circular materials and vintage car lamps. Wintercircus sits at Lammerstraat 13, near the central library by RCR and Coussée & Goris.

How is Ghent marking Juliaan Lampens' centenary?

The Woning Van Wassenhove — a concrete house of geometry and light with integrated furniture, designed 1972–1974 by Belgian architect Juliaan Lampens (1926–2019) for professor and art collector Albert Van Wassenhove — sits in the leafy suburb of Sint-Martens-Latem. Today it belongs to the Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, which focuses on 20th- and 21st-century art.

To celebrate Lampens' 100th birthday, the museum, with the Juliaan Lampens Foundation and the Flemish Architecture Institute, will host a symposium on 5 November 2026 and an exhibition, 'Juliaan Lampens 1926-2026', running 29 November 2026 – 14 March 2027. The house will be open to the public during the exhibition's run — a rare chance to enter one of Brutalism's most total works.