To build a new conference center near the heart of a UNESCO World Heritage site is a difficult enough proposition, but on a budget of just $44 million, it is an even tougher one. Yet Antwerp-based META and the office of the Portuguese Pritzker Prize–winner Eduardo Souto de Moura have pulled this off, creating a conference center and exhibition hall just yards away from one of the major squares in the historic town of Bruges in Belgium. Their classic brick-clad building—which rises to 82 feet on the west-facing front facade but generally keeps to 50 feet—feels instantly integral to the place.
Although the city has a year-round tourist season, authorities noted that hotels were relatively quiet during the week compared to the weekend. Understanding that the beauty of the town itself would always be the major draw, they aimed for more business visitors by building a conference facility for around 500 people. Intelligently, they decided to replace a 1960s single-story concrete convention center in the old town rather than build outside it. A design-build consortium of contractor MBG, with META and Souto de Moura, won the competition, the latter two having met and formed a creative partnership following Souto de Moura’s work on a crematorium in nearby Kortrijk (2011).
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