ABSTRACT
The Museum aan de Stroom is dedicated to telling the story of the city's history, using both historical objects and its extensive art collection. For centuries, Antwerp has been a place of meeting, encounter, and exchange. The museum takes up traces of those exchanges and uses them to tell new stories. At the Museum aan de Stroom, objects form a triangle foundation for the displays; thus the museum is not just about the objects but about the stories they tell, and art is appreciated not only for esthetic purposes but also for how it fits into the history of the port city. The building would be required to conserve the heritage objects in the combined collection, engage visitors in the story of Antwerp, be a meeting place in the city, drive urban redevelopment, and be an architectural icon. Built in an open plaza on the historical port, the building is a driving force behind a renaissance of the area.
