The Charleroi Museum of Fine Arts is leaving the upper town and moving into the former gendarmerie stables of the Defeld building, in the east of the city. The conversion, carried out by Goffart Polomé Architects, manages to exist in the shadow of the police station, the “Blue Tower”, by facing the city with its main façade. Delicate connections give this intervention its accuracy.

The main façade, which historically overlooked the police station forecourt, now faces the boulevard. Narrow in proportion, it is clad in a high curved concrete structure that serves both as a threshold for the museum and a visual symbol for the city. Visible from Boulevard Paul Janson, it anchors this future museum complex to the life of the city.