In 2019, Tim Van Laere’s new art gallery opened in the fashionable Nieuw Zuid district of Antwerp. Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen designed a mini-museum that reinterprets the white cube and creates a sense of urbanity.

Nieuw Zuid, the area between Antwerp’s courthouse, the entrance to the Kennedy Tunnel and the Scheldt, has been the subject of various plans. In 1990, Toyo Ito produced a project for this former marshalling yard at the request of the non-profit organisation Stad aan de Stroom, but it failed to attract interest from the city or private investors. A project by Jo Crepain from 2001, commissioned by the NMBS, aimed for very high density, particularly of offices. In 2010, a developer acquired a large portion of the land, and a competition was organised with city architect Kristiaan Borret, which was won by Secchi Viganò.