MAS Museum aan de Stroom
Stacked red sandstone tower by the docks telling Antwerp's story, with a free rooftop panorama.
The MAS opened in 2011 on the Hanzestedenplaats, between the old city and the former Hanseatic docks. Neutelings Riedijk Architects stacked ten storeys of Indian red sandstone as a spiral of shifted boxes, each turned a quarter from the one below, with undulating glass filling the gaps. The resulting outdoor route, the boulevard, climbs through the building between the galleries and ends on a roof terrace 60 metres up that looks over the port, the Scheldt and the cathedral. Access to the boulevard and the terrace is free.
The museum brought together the collections of the former Ethnographic Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the Folklore Museum and the Butchers' Hall, some 470,000 objects in all. Permanent displays deal with the port and world trade, the city's food history, power and display, and life and death, while a visible storage depot shows objects not otherwise on view. The building also houses temporary exhibitions, a heritage library and a ground-floor square used for events, and it has become a landmark of the redeveloped Eilandje quarter.
Highlights
- Free escalator boulevard spiralling up through the building
- Rooftop panorama over the port, Scheldt and old city
- Collections on the port, world trade and city life
- Visible storage depot of objects not on permanent display
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