Architecture

Front view M © Karel Rondou

Brand new museum complex

M - Museum Leuven is the successor to the Vander Kelen-Mertens Municipal Museum. The new museum building was designed by the famed Belgian architect Stéphane Beel. Beel has integrated two old and two new buildings into his design, creating a balanced and efficient complex. He strives to achieve complementarity between existing and new architecture in which classical and contemporary art can enter into a dialogue with each other.

The museum complex includes various new spaces: the M café, the M shop, the multifunctional auditorium, the children’s studio, the workshop spaces, the pleasant courtyard, the roof terrace and the splendid exhibition spaces.

The antechamber is the heart of M: an impressive reception space, an inviting and freely accessible area where you can get a taste of the exhibits or experience some of the activities. It is Leuven’s new market square, where you can meet up with friends or family.

Sketches Stéphane Beel

Stéphane Beel

In 2004, Leuven held an architectural competition for the new complex. It was won by the Bruges-Gent-based offices of architect Stéphane Beel, who is famous across Europe.

Beel boasts extensive experience with museum architecture. Amongst others, he designed the expansion of the Centraal Museum in Utrecht (1994/1999), the pavilion of the Rubens House in Antwerp (1997) and the Raveel Museum in Machelen-Zulte (1995-1999). He is currently working on the renovation of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren.

The museum’s total surface area: 13,500 m2
Depot area: 2,000 m2
Exhibition area: 6,500 m²

Roof terrace © Jan Kempenaers

M and Leuven

M’s visitors are treated to a spectacular view of the town. The highpoint, literally, is the roof terrace on the new building, which is part of the museum tour. When you visit M, you are constantly reminded that you are in Leuven.

Informal little doorways and passages are characteristic of the university city of Leuven, which features numerous, spread-out colleges and university buildings. M can also be approached and entered from a number of different directions:

from the Vanderkelenstraat, through the formal pediment and pillar-flanked entrance;
from the Savoyestraat and the garden.

The three ‘approaches’ meet in the garden, where the old museum

oak, planted in 1930, is both a focal point and an important

point of orientation.

Courtyard M © Jan Kempenaers

Old and New

M is a composition of existing, historical elements and contemporary adaptations. The result is a new complex composed of four parts: the former Vander Kelen-Mertens residence, the former university college of Saint Ivo (the old Academy) and two new structures of which the pediment at the main entrance features the remains of the former faculty of science.

Leuven’s motto – Legendary, living, Leuven – also lies at the core of the architecture: the new is grafted onto the old, creating new life. The result is a new and exciting entity. Every part of M can be used for both classical and contemporary art: contemporary art in old spaces, classical art in new rooms.

The Vander Kelen residence has been actively integrated into the new complex with great respect for its historic value. For example, in the house, which was the heart of the old museum, the

nineteenth century colours have been reused, leaf-gold has

been reapplied and replicas of the original parquet have

been laid. A number of later additions have been removed

and the period rooms have been restored to their former grandeur.