Following seven years of design, planning and construction, the new exhibition hall BRUSK in Bruges will open to the public on Friday 8 May 2026. BRUSK was designed by Robbrecht en Daem architecten and Olivier Salens architecten and developed by CIT Red.
Located next to the Groeningemuseum and in the city center of Bruges, this is an exhibition hall with a highly convivial character. The exhibition areas are at a raised level and separated from each other by a public passageway (Scala Grande), creating an open, transparent and freely accessible ground level. The building does not necessarily call on walkers to stop; on the contrary, the central public passageway makes it possible to walk straight through the complex. The centrepiece of this passageway is the recently unveiled, monumental fresco ‘The Whispering Walls Rêve’ by the French artist Laure Prouvost: a work of art that anyone – whether or not they intend to visit an exhibition – is invited to discover. This ground level is given over in its entirety to the city, its inhabitants and its visitors. It is more like a public square than a public building, which openly and freely creates and stimulates opportunities for encounters between the public and art and bring residents, passers-by and visitors together. In the future, this level will open out onto a new museum park.
BRUSK’s exhibition rooms stand out in the museum landscape due to their natural fall of light (from the north, as was usually the case in the great artistic workshops of the past) and their unique height (making them reminiscent of a church or cathedral). The exterior of BRUSK is covered in textured and electricity generating glass ‘scales’, which provide the building with a sustainable form of energy.
With several large architectonic buildings (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, the Belfry, Sint-Salvator Cathedral…) in the immediate vicinity, BRUSK forms a cluster with important components in the city. These monuments played a fundamental role the design of BRUSK. The two visual axes – one in the direction of the Belfry, one in the direction of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk – invest the design with a deep sense of urban connectivity and allow these monuments to communicate further with one another. The exhibition hall also preserves the historic skyline. The building does not make its presence felt by virtue of its height; you discover it by walking through a sequence of alleys, passageways and small parks. It deliberately connects with the historic tension of this inner area.
Together with BRUSK, the Groeningemuseum and the future museum park, BRON also forms the beating heart of the new Bruges Museum Quarter. BRON is the scientific research centre of Musea Brugge, where the collection, expertise and knowledge resources come together in a stimulating environment.
The opening of BRUSK marks the launch of two exhibitions: a solo exhibition by the Turkish-American AI artist Refik Anadol and the cultural-historical exhibition ‘Bigger Picture’, returning Bruges to the origins of its international identity as a world city avant la lettre.
Located next to the Groeningemuseum and in the city center of Bruges, this is an exhibition hall with a highly convivial character. The exhibition areas are at a raised level and separated from each other by a public passageway (Scala Grande), creating an open, transparent and freely accessible ground level. The building does not necessarily call on walkers to stop; on the contrary, the central public passageway makes it possible to walk straight through the complex. The centrepiece of this passageway is the recently unveiled, monumental fresco ‘The Whispering Walls Rêve’ by the French artist Laure Prouvost: a work of art that anyone – whether or not they intend to visit an exhibition – is invited to discover. This ground level is given over in its entirety to the city, its inhabitants and its visitors. It is more like a public square than a public building, which openly and freely creates and stimulates opportunities for encounters between the public and art and bring residents, passers-by and visitors together. In the future, this level will open out onto a new museum park.
BRUSK’s exhibition rooms stand out in the museum landscape due to their natural fall of light (from the north, as was usually the case in the great artistic workshops of the past) and their unique height (making them reminiscent of a church or cathedral). The exterior of BRUSK is covered in textured and electricity generating glass ‘scales’, which provide the building with a sustainable form of energy.
With several large architectonic buildings (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, the Belfry, Sint-Salvator Cathedral…) in the immediate vicinity, BRUSK forms a cluster with important components in the city. These monuments played a fundamental role the design of BRUSK. The two visual axes – one in the direction of the Belfry, one in the direction of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk – invest the design with a deep sense of urban connectivity and allow these monuments to communicate further with one another. The exhibition hall also preserves the historic skyline. The building does not make its presence felt by virtue of its height; you discover it by walking through a sequence of alleys, passageways and small parks. It deliberately connects with the historic tension of this inner area.
Together with BRUSK, the Groeningemuseum and the future museum park, BRON also forms the beating heart of the new Bruges Museum Quarter. BRON is the scientific research centre of Musea Brugge, where the collection, expertise and knowledge resources come together in a stimulating environment.
The opening of BRUSK marks the launch of two exhibitions: a solo exhibition by the Turkish-American AI artist Refik Anadol and the cultural-historical exhibition ‘Bigger Picture’, returning Bruges to the origins of its international identity as a world city avant la lettre.
