Ghent design museum reopens with waste-brick wing

Belgium's largest design museum reopens on 3 October 2026 with a jagged white wing made from building waste.

Design Museum Gent in Ghent, Belgium, throws open its doors after a four-year renovation and expansion. The work was led by London-based practice Carmody Groarke with Atama and Re-st, according to details published by Dezeen.

The team restored the museum's three historic wings and renovated its existing courtyard. A new six-storey extension stitches those older parts together. The aim was to link previously disjointed spaces and complete the visitor loop, so you can walk the whole museum without doubling back.

The numbers tell the scale. The 2,200-square-metre addition takes the museum to 8,600 square metres in total, including 3,700 square metres of exhibition space.

The new wing is hard to miss. It has a sloping, geometric profile that nods to Ghent's traditional gabled houses. Its frame is timber, and it is wrapped in pale bricks made from local construction waste.

Those bricks borrow their size from the neighbouring Hotel de Coninck in Ghent. They were made with a low-energy lime-curing process, which hardens the blocks without the high heat of a conventional kiln. Developed with Local Works Studio and BC Materials, they are claimed to carry one-third the embodied carbon, meaning the emissions locked into making them, of a typical Belgian clay brick.

Inside, the layout is stacked by use. Reception and shop sit at ground level, alongside exhibition rooms and a lecture hall. Middle floors hold education spaces. The top floor is an event space, with an art-handling area tucked into the basement. The street entrance gets its own talking point: a 3D-printed aluminium door by Antwerp studio Unfold.

The reopening programme is already listed on the museum's website. Public Matter(s): Design and Democracy and CO-LAB both run from 3 October 2026 to 11 April 2027, while the interactive show CONNECT runs from 3 October 2026 to 10 January 2027, according to Design Museum Gent. The museum says its new visual identity was created by young talent at Studio Grafisch Ontwerp, and describes the new wing as the final piece that connects everything.

What makes this stand out for a weekend visit is how practical it is. More classrooms, more event room and a clear route through old and new. Come for the waste-brick walls. Stay because you can finally find your way around.