Museum of Louvain-la-Neuve Design Competition

Result

The association of architects Perkins + Will (Chicago) and Emile Verhaegen SA (Belgium) won the architectural competition launched by the UCL in November 15, 2007, for the construction of the future museum of Louvain-la-Neuve.

37 architectures offices had responded to the first phase of competition (call for ideas).
4 offices had been selected for the second phase (February 2008), requiring the furnishing of a more detailed and budgetise (May 2008): Charles VANDENHOVE office and associates (Liege), the office Massimiliano FUKSAS (Rome), the association PERKINS WILL + Emile VERHAEGEN (Brussels) and the office TECTONICS (London).

More information...

Overview

In order to choose the designer of the new museum next to the lake of Louvain-la-Neuve, The Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) launch the open architecture competition.

Description
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.

The construction budget of the new museum is fixed at EUR 11,000,000 including VAT, excluding fees (architecture, structural engineering and special techniques). This amount includes the entire construction of the projected 5,000 m2

Jury
To be announced

Prize
The award winner: EUR 550,000 (5% of the budget for the building, 11,000 EUR, not including furniture and modification of the surrounding neighbourhood)
Architects taking part in the second phase: EUR 5,000

Entry Fee
EUR 500

Entries
First Stage: Initial outline design concept for the new building
- 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.

Languages
French

Timetable
First stage result: Febuary 1st 2008 : Selection of 3 to 5 the architects taking part in the second phase of the competition
Deadline for second stage submission: May 15th 2008
Selection of the award winner: June 15th 2008
Building work: 2009 - 2010
Inauguration of the New Museum of Louvain-la-Neuve: September 2010

Promoter
Universite Catholique de Louvain

Official Website
http://www.muse.ucl.ac.be/