ABBY KORTRIJK PROJECT DESIGNED BY BAROZZI VEIGA IN COLLAB WITH TAB ARCHITECTS

The Abby Kortrijk project, designed by Barozzi Veiga in collaboration with TAB Architects, transforms the historic Groeninge Abbey into a contemporary arts space dedicated to site-specific exhibitions and public events. Located within Begijnhof Park in the centre of Kortrijk, the project establishes a new cultural destination that is open, accessible, and deeply rooted in its urban and historical context.

The design is driven by a careful balance between persistence, restoration, and transformation. Rather than redefining the site, the intervention reveals the spatial qualities of the existing abbey, restoring the original courtyard and enhancing the presence of the chapel and former dormitories. A new underground extension introduces flexible, museum quality exhibition spaces, conceived as neutral environments that contrast with the expressive character of the historic structures above.

A new pavilion completes the ensemble. Positioned orthogonally within the site and opening towards the park, it acts as a contemporary counterpoint to the abbey. Its dark brick façades and inclined geometry reference the verticality of the historic roofs while asserting a clear and independent identity. The pavilion accommodates a bar and restaurant, extending the public dimension of the project and reinforcing its role as an urban meeting place.

The architectural strategy remains restrained and precise. Non original additions have been removed to recover the clarity of the abbey’s spatial organisation, while new interventions are carefully inserted to strengthen legibility and continuity. A new passage reconnects Groeningestraat with the park, reactivating the cloister structure and improving public permeability through the site.

Inside, the former dormitory is minimally restored, preserving its original windows, ceilings, and terracotta flooring. A continuous display element introduces works from the city’s collection, encouraging a direct dialogue between heritage and contemporary art. The chapel, one of the oldest elements of the complex, is returned to its full vertical volume, offering a monumental space for exhibitions.

Below ground, the new galleries provide highly adaptable exhibition rooms designed as neutral “white boxes”, ensuring technical precision while maintaining focus on the artworks. This layered organisation creates a coherent sequence of contrasting atmospheres, from historic rooms to subterranean spaces and open public areas.

Materially, the project reinforces this dialogue between old and new. The restored façades preserve their original character, while the new pavilion is defined by custom made bricks incorporating recycled materials, giving it a tactile and contemporary presence within the historical fabric. Through this subtle and measured intervention, Abby Kortrijk becomes a flexible art house where architecture, heritage, and public life intersect, extending the narrative of the abbey into a new cultural future.  

The pavilion’s volumetric clarity and inclined roof profile introduce a form that, in its abstract expression, subtly recalls other contemporary museum extensions such as the Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, where architecture operates through a distilled reinterpretation of familiar typologies. In that project, Eduardo Souto de Moura develops, as often noted in critical readings, an architecture of its time while simultaneously reactivating historical models, an approach aligned with Aldo Rossi’s idea of architectural permanence and urban memory. Rather than seeking novelty through form, it engages with archetypal figures such as towers, silos, lighthouses, and chimneys, producing a dialogue between new intervention and surrounding context, often interpreted as a form of “historicist” or regionally grounded architecture.

In a similar way, the Abby Kortrijk pavilion establishes a dialogue with its surroundings through recognisable yet abstracted formal cues. Its presence within the historical abbey ensemble can be read as part of this broader architectural lineage, where analogy, memory, and typological resonance become tools for integrating contemporary architecture into complex cultural landscapes.

project: Abby kortrijk   > www.abbykortrijk.be 

architecture: Barozzi Viega in collaboration with Tab architects

project team: (Barozzi Veiga) Pieter Janssens; Chen-Hsin Chang, Tomás Mesquita, Ivanna Sanjuán, Guillermo Sidrach, Antonis Tasoulis, Maria Ubach + (Tab Architects) Jonathan Toye, Bert Lescouhier, Bert Devos, Pieter Frantzen, Ilja De Pelsmaeker, Lotte Engelborghs, Maxime Honoré, Luisa Soares

typology: rehabilitation, museum, cultural 

location: Kortrijk, Belgium 

year: 2025

status: completed, built 

photography: Barozzi Veiga + Simone Marcolin 

TECHNICAL DRAWINGS 

The Abby Kortrijk project has received several distinctions highlighting its architectural and cultural significance. It was awarded the Biennale Call to Action 2025 Award at the VI Pisa Architecture Biennale, recognising the project by Barozzi Veiga for its contribution to contemporary architectural discourse and the transformation of heritage-based cultural spaces. The project was also awarded the Henry van de Velde Award in the Spaces category, acknowledging its contribution to spatial innovation and the redefinition of public cultural infrastructure. In addition, Abby Kortrijk was named Museum Building of the Year by Museumpas during the Week of Belgian Museums, further highlighting its impact on contemporary museum architecture. Finally, it has been selected for the EU Mies van der Rohe Awards 2026, positioning it among the most relevant cultural projects in Europe today.

Take a look at other projects by Barozzi Veiga already published on da.paper and explore their architectural approach in more detail just HERE.