A building block for urban renewal
Bruges Convention Centre by Souto de Moura and Meta
Meeting and Convention Centre BMCC, META architectuurbureau and Eduardo Souto de Moura, © Filip Dujardin
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After a 55-year interim solution, Eduardo Souto de Moura and Meta architectuurbureau have given Bruges a contemporary convention centre. Over the course of this project, the surrounding outdoor areas and row houses have been renovated as well. After 1966, a temporary exhibition building stood on the southwestern edge of the Old Town in the Flemish Hanseatic city. The demolition of this long-term provisional solution in 2017 was the green light for the Portuguese-Belgian architecture team to implement not only the new building, but also to redesign the surrounding residential area.
© Filip Dujardin
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The new convention centre comprises a 4500 m² exhibition hall on the ground floor as well as conference rooms for 500 people in the main building, whose four storeys protrude on the east-facing side of the structure. This area juts dramatically over the plaza that acts as a forecourt, thus forming a sheltered entrance in front of the actual glazed lobby. The hall behind the lobby can be opened onto the plaza on all sides.
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The upper levels are home to a 500-seat auditorium with retractable rows of chairs, twelve divisible conference rooms and a 675 m² catering area with an adjacent rooftop terrace. Each of the three areas – auditorium, conference and restaurant – has the same number of seats.
© Filip Dujardin
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The architects have given the façades a rather strict appearance: closed-off brick walls rise above the stout-looking plinth of glass and dark-coloured metal sheeting and distract from the choppy roof silhouette, which accommodates skylight superstructures. Only on the east-facing entrance side does the building shell loosen into multi-storey brick pilasters behind which the glass façade of the conference area and the recessed rooftop terrace can be seen. The choice of materials, of course, refers to the many brick façades found not only on the surrounding houses, but also in the nearby Old Town.
© Filip Dujardin
© Filip Dujardin
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The architects set a striking contrast to Bruges’ historical cobblestone with the paving they used around their new building. It consists of large-format slabs of washed concrete that transitions nearly seamlessly to the polished concrete flooring of the entrance lobby and the exhibition hall. Redesigning the plaza was accompanied by the challenge of preserving the 38 beech trees growing there.
© Filip Dujardin
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A 240 kWp photovoltaic system on the roof contributes to the new building’s energy requirements. Indeed, it is the city’s largest PV array on a public building. It is operated by a cooperative society that is open to all of Bruges’ residents in the form of shares available in exchange for an investment of 250 euros.
Architecture: Eduardo Souto de Moura, META architectuurbureau
Client: City of Bruges
Location: Beursplein 1, 8000 Bruges (BE)
Structural engineering: Mouton, Afaconsult
Project development: CFE
Landscape architecture: Landinzicht Landschapsarchitecten
Building services engineering: hp engineers
Acoustics, building physics, energy concept: Daidalos Peutz
General contractor: MBG
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