Museum of Louvain-la-Neuve Design Competition

The Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) intends to build a new museum next to the lake of Louvain-la-Neuve. In order to choose the designer of the new building, which is intended to be exceptional, the University is organizing a strictly private architecture competition.

The current museum of Louvain-la-Neuve, located in the Humanities Faculty building, situated Place Blaise Pascal, houses an outstanding heritage made up of more than 14,000 exhibits.

At the present time, the museum lacks visibility in its current location. Moreover it has only 680 m2 at its disposal for exhibitions. Due to its small area, the museum can only present a small part of its collections at a time and besides there are only very limited possibilities of organizing temporary exhibitions.

This competition will be run in two phases:

First, the University is calling for an initial outline design concept for the new building. This first phase is open to all architects.

Candidates have to return their application documents including:

• Their motivations,
• Their reference projects in public buildings or in museums if they have any,
• Their general ideas on the basis of the specificity and constraints of the site and the museum itself,
• A technical and financial description in order to show the feasibility of the project.

Then, the University will select a few projects (probably 3 to 5).

Secondly, the University will provide the architects with more details about the museum and especially concerning town planning and the spatial and functional program. With this additional information, architects will prepare, in partnership with the University, a more detailed outline design concept for the building. This outline will provide elevations, plans and cross-sections of the building in its context. A descriptive text shall also be included in order to be able to appreciate the projectÂ’s functional, esthetical, technical and financial qualities.

At the end of this second phase, the University will choose the award winner who is to become the designer of the project.

The first phase is not remunerated.

More Information:
http://www.muse.ucl.ac.be/
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