House for Design
Design Museum Gent, Ghent (BE), 2026
‘If everything is designed, we can also design it differently.’ This idea lies at the heart of the renewed Design Museum Gent. A new wing invites visitors to take a fresh look at the building, the collection and the stories they tell.
New building, new museum
Design Museum Gent is getting a new wing: a sustainable and freely accessible extension with space for lectures, workshops and events. This space creates opportunities to introduce everyone to design throughs the collection and visitor engagement. At the same time, the extension raises questions: how does this new part connect to the rest of the museum? How do you create a clear visitor route? And how do you tell one coherent story? Studio Louter guided this process through pressure cooker sessions and the Emotion Design method.
Everything can be different
In a pressure cooker session, we identified the common thread: the museum as a House for Design, a place where all aspects of design come together. Visitors are inspired, challenged to create and innovate themselves and encouraged to reflect on design questions. Because if everything is designed, we can also design it differently. Using this core concept as our starting point, we developed the visitor engagement plans with our Emotion Design method. This brought direction and coherence to the existing ideas, providing the museum with a strong foundation for developing the new House for Design.
Photos by Wannes Nimmegeers and Werkpaard
“That thought exercise was very important for us in getting everyone on the same page and bringing clarity to all the ideas and projects that have emerged over the past few years.”
Hannelore van Hamme, Public Engagement, Design Museum Gent
Credits
Client
Design Museum GentContent Design
Studio Louter