Description

The traditional porcelain manufacturer Royal Boch, founded in 1841, was well-known for its exquisite tableware. In 2011, however, after several changes of ownership, the company eventually closed its doors, with significant economic consequences for the Belgian town of La Louvière near Mons. On the 16-hectare empty site left behind after the demolition of most of the factory buildings, a small museum with art workshops – the Wallonia Centre for Ceramics – has been built that serves as a flagship project for the region. An undulating ribbon of concrete wall now winds its way across the front of the east, north and west elevations of a pair of the factory’s old brick buildings housing the centre. Conveniently located, the Keramis can be reached from the railway station through a newly designed park and from the city via an open square. It is envisaged that the museum will eventually form the centre of a future mixed-use urban quarter.

From the lobby, a circuitous route leads visitors through the museum’s exhibition areas. The spaces expand and contract on their way from the ground floor to the upper floor and back, offering views into the old factory hall at the centre of the complex as well as views out over the surroundings. Changes of direction are cleverly staged in the confined space, revealing ever new impressions of the 1000 m² hall and the three round coal-fired kilns from 1865 with their conical tops. But while the industrial monument is the centrepiece of the complex, it is not in the foreground.

The new extension facing the park on the north side of the building winds gracefully around it, sewing together the existing building complex with the outside space. The pair of old halls are open only towards the city to the south, their unrendered brick walls testifying to their history. The second of the two halls with its pitched roof houses part of the exhibition spaces and a gallery on the upper floor for temporary exhibitions.

As ceramic exhibits do not have particularly demanding climatic requirements, the interiors have been kept plain and spartan. At eleven million euros, the budget was very small. The ceilings and interior walls are therefore made of smooth-shuttered exposed concrete and tubular neon lights illuminate the rooms. The outer facade has been covered by an oversized pattern – which the artist (Jean Glibert from Brussels) calls a camouflage – that resembles the craquelure cracking patterns of glazes on porcelain.

Originally published in Bauwelt 32.33-2015, pp. 44-47, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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