FVWW, in collaboration with Callebaut Architects, carried out the renovation and repurposing of a wing of the Cloth Hall in Ypres. This now houses the new city museum, with event spaces on the ground floor. The interventions create a forward-looking internal logic and also reflect the turbulent history of both the building and the city.

The Cloth Hall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest civil neo-Gothic building in Europe. During the First World War, the building was completely destroyed by fire, only to rise from its ashes in several phases. The wing housing the city museum was constructed with a concrete frame only after the Second World War, in contrast to the earlier sections, which were built of timber. The architects at FVWW incorporated the building’s historical development into their design and exposed the concrete framework in every room, which had previously been concealed behind a false wooden structure.