Bruges Plans for a New Museum

The City of Bruges announced plans for the construction of a new museum and a new artistic site in the heart of the historic city centre. The new exhibition hall named BRUSK, is set to open its doors by the end of 2024.

BRUSK will house two museum spaces large enough to accommodate international travelling exhibitions of both classical and contemporary works. However, the exhibition rooms will also be designed with sufficient flexibility, so that they can be divided up into smaller spaces to allow a number of exhibitions, performances or other events to take place at the same time.

BRUSK’s exhibition rooms will stand out in the museum landscape, not only by their use of natural light, but also because of their unique height (which is reminiscent of a church or cathedral).

Out of respect for the surrounding buildings, BRUSK will preserve the existing visual axes. The historic skyline will remain unaltered. The exhibition areas will be constructed at a raised level and will be separated from each other by a public passageway so that an open, transparent and freely accessible ground level will be created.

The exterior of BRUSK will be covered in dark green and electricity-generating glass 'scales', which will provide the building with a sustainable form of energy. The green colour of these glass plates will complement and enhance the surrounding green ambience of the adjacent new park.

Preparatory work for the construction of the building, which is designed by a team under the leadership of Robbrecht en Daem Architecten and Olivier Salens Architecten, is scheduled to commence in 2022.

In the years ahead, Bruges plans to invest in a master plan for its historic city centre. In addition to the construction of BRUSK, the heart of the museum city will be refurbished. The entire site will be given a make-over that will include a new park in which the renovation of the Groeningemuseum forms an essential part.