Words by Anna Winston
Rotterdam-headquarted KAAN Architecten has revealed the initial phases of an ambitious renovation and extension of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (KSMKA) in Antwerp, 18 years after winning the contentious project.
Led by co-founder Dikkie Scipio, the firm’s team has created a ‘museum-within-a-museum’, completely restoring and refurbishing the existing 19th-century building and creating a large, new, 21st-century structure at its heart, where there was once a courtyard.
The resulting plan is complex, with a layering of different scales and uses, including walkways in the new museum that cut across the 19th-century galleries and are hidden within the walls of the old building and public facilities like a restaurant, which all connect to the museum plaza.