Open spaces
Kanal wants to be a building that Brussels can simply walk into, a place that is traversed, inhabited and used in multiple ways. A living museum that spills into the city and – in turn – draws its energy back inside. It is of course a museum, with exhibitions and spaces dedicated to performance, dance, music and film. But it is also an extension of the city, offering open-ended spaces to read, learn, ponder or create. For shelter or encounter. Or simply doing nothing.
With a surface area of 40 000 m2, the museum forms a world of its own. It brings together a library and reading room, studios and play areas, a rooftop and restaurant, a brasserie and a bakery. These spaces echo the site’s past as a place of production and collective imagination, while reactivating it as a shared proposition, a cultural commons. Whether you arrive with a desire for art, a need to study or the simple pleasure of wandering, visitors are invited to appropriate the spaces in their own way.
In this sense, Kanal is designed to become a natural reflex. A destination in a school timetable or a shortcut to the train station. A pin dropped in a WhatsApp chat to finally start a group assignment. Part of a preschool curriculum, a favourite study spot during exam season, or the meeting place for a first date that lingers longer than expected. A museum shaped by its users – and made with them in mind.
