The client wishes to expand the existing design museum housed in the listed building Hotel De Coninck and the ’92 wing. This final piece is meant to become the missing link between the existing buildings and to solve numerous current issues. The available plot on Drabstraat is very small and irregular in shape: 372 m². A demanding program must be realized here: storage, workshops, loading and unloading, art handling, a restaurant with kitchen, new exhibition spaces, public engagement facilities, and event spaces.

We deliberately opt for a vertical stacking of the program rather than spreading it horizontally. This way, we preserve light and air at ground level.
At level -1, we organize loading and unloading via an access ramp, art handling for both large and small objects, and the heavy-duty workshop. This avoids burdening the ground floor with these functions, prevents cross-traffic, and allows staff to work undisturbed.

To connect Design Museum Ghent as much as possible with the city, we make the ground floor truly public and permeable.
It features the secondary entrance and the DING! grand café. The requested terrace faces Drabstraat and is oriented to the south. It is never in shadow, making it a pleasant meeting place from early morning until late evening.
Between the restaurant and the neighboring buildings lies a triangular pocket park with a tree, providing DING! and the neighbors with light, air, and greenery.

On the first floor (+1), a horizontal axis connects the three museum spaces and gives access to the beginning of the free exhibition in DING!
Above that is a floor with the event space and the public engagement studio, offering views over the entire city!
This level is conceived as a “silo” where the permanent Belgian Design collection can be shown in combination with temporary exhibitions.
The top floor houses the technical area. We place it here because situating it on level -1 would double the size of the shafts for the HVAC ducts, which is highly inefficient given the limited available square meters.
By placing the technical space above, we can directly intake and exhaust the necessary fresh air at the top, without having to channel it all the way down to the basement through shafts.

On the roof, we organize a public panoramic platform with seating tiers and an outdoor bar — 24/7 views over Ghent!
At 38 meters tall, it becomes a small and slender tower among Ghent’s large historic towers.
The Design Museum gains its place in the city — and a recognizable identity!