Belgium’s Design Museum Ghent has unveiled a €20 million expansion built with recycled construction materials, including 62,000 low-carbon bricks made partly from local building waste. The project combines sustainable architecture with public participation, offering a model for how cities can reduce the environmental impact of construction.
The five-storey extension, designed by London-based Carmody Groarke alongside Belgian practices Atama and Re-st, incorporates discarded concrete, windows, car windscreens, sinks and toilets into a striking new building overlooking Ghent’s historic centre.
The project draws inspiration from the city’s Saint Bavo’s Cathedral, which was partly constructed using stone from an earlier building on the same site. The principle of reusing existing materials has been applied throughout the museum, from walls finished with local clay to interior features incorporating salvaged timber and rubble from the construction site.
“There’s nothing new about reuse,” said Andy Groarke, co-founder of Carmody Groarke. “We’ve just forgotten how to do it.”
Bricks made from local construction waste
The project’s central innovation is a specially developed brick containing 63% construction waste sourced within eight kilometres of the museum. The material is pulverised and compressed with hydrated lime, reducing the bricks’ embodied carbon by around two-thirds compared with conventional fired-clay alternatives.
The lime also absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it cures, giving the bricks an additional environmental benefit.
Developed by East Sussex-based Local Works Studio and Brussels-based BC Materials, the bricks were produced at a former railway depot near the museum. Members of the public were invited to mix materials and press their own bricks during a two-day festival. Visitors can also purchase a brick from the museum shop for €10.
Architect Sian Ricketts, Carmody Groarke’s sustainability lead, described the project as a demonstration of what can be achieved through collaboration, rather than a single solution to the climate crisis.
Sustainable materials feature throughout the building. Its timber structure uses spruce cross-laminated timber panels and beech laminated veneer lumber beams, while salvaged wood from a Brussels tobacco factory lines the entrance lobby. Toilet facilities showcase alternative materials made from seaweed, flax, wood terrazzo and volcanic ash.
A public building shaped by its community
The museum’s redevelopment was also informed by a citizens’ panel of 40 randomly selected Ghent residents. More than 100 recommendations helped shape the project, including requests for freely accessible areas, comfortable seating and opportunities to see work in progress.
The extension connects galleries that were previously spread across an 18th-century mansion and a 1990s addition, creating a continuous, accessible route through the museum for the first time. It also provides spaces for workshops, lectures, temporary exhibitions and public events, alongside a top-floor area open to visitors without a ticket.
Although the building’s angular white exterior has drawn criticism for its scale in Ghent’s historic cityscape, its upper floors offer panoramic views of the city’s castle and church spires.
The expansion forms part of a wider effort to make the museum a civic space as well as an exhibition venue. Its opening programme includes Public Matter(s): Design and Democracy, an exhibition exploring how design shapes democratic decision-making, from ballot papers to parliamentary architecture.
By prioritising the reuse of materials and the renovation of existing facilities over a more extensive new-build project, the museum’s architects sought to maximise the impact of a limited budget.
The result is both a cultural landmark and a practical demonstration of how construction waste can be repurposed, reducing demand for new raw materials while bringing sustainability and public participation into the heart of civic architecture.
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