Gallery: Antwerp’s Towering MAS Muse...

image 5 of 14

Photo © Ana Lisa Alperovich for Inhabitat

view this image in original size ( 728 x 486 )

The architectural concept was to emphasize the heaviness of the city’s bast history with the stone and to match the red shade of some important city center buildings nearby.

Antwerp’s MAS Museum opened its doors back in May 2011. Its name stands for Museum Aan de Stroom, which means Museum on the River. Each of the building’s ten stories is twisted 90 degrees to form a rising spiral.

Neutelings Riedijk built the building from red stone to match the shade of several important city center buildings nearby. The large panels of hand-cut red Indian sandstone from Agra are distributed over the façade according to a computer-generated pattern. The architects balanced the heavy stone facade with thick corrugated glass that provides transparency and lightness and mind-blowing views of the city — at the corners!