Antwerp Dry Docks, Cultural Centre
The master plan for Droogdokkenisland places points of high density at the edges of a park. The new building for the Royal Flemish Ballet and the Antwerp Philharmonic Orchestra is one of these centres of activity. The new Cultural Centre is placed on a strategic point for the whole city of Antwerp. Located at the river Schelde’s knee, it literally links the city to the North Sea. There are precedents for placing a cultural facility in a prime location on the waterfront such as the Sydney Opera House or the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. Unlike the Guggenheim though, this project is not about importing a cultural (and commercial) venue in order to put a rather provincial town on the map. The building for Antwerp’s new Cultural Centre is the logical consequence of many years of outstanding work and international success of two Antwerp-based institutions, and it is a long anticipated destination for the local artistic community. Two large size live performance venues of very different natures are joined in one building. Ballet is a visual and a physical experience, it is about fiction and interaction, about body and mind. Music is “only“ one of its dimensions.
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