Belgium 2017: Ghent - Day 2

On our second day in Ghent, we planned to visit the Ghent Design Museum, followed by lunch before heading back to our home swap in Antwerp to pack up and prepare for our final week in Brussels.  The Ghent Design Museum is the only museum in Belgium that features an International design collection.  It is housed in an 18th Century mansion with ornate wooden banisters, chandeliers, and murals painted on the ceilings.  But it also has a modern wing which makes for an interesting juxtaposition of old vs new architecture and design.  The museum also features the most unique toilet area that I’ve ever seen.  The public toilets of the museum are situated within a giant toilet-paper shaped structure, which we first spotted from the outside during our city walking tour.  It isn’t often when the trip to the washrooms is thought of as one of the highlights of visiting a venue!

The Design Museum has some interesting pieces in its collection.  The “Book Table” is created by Netherland designer Richard Hutten and is made of stacks of English and Dutch hard-covered books coated in resin.  A bright neon blue sofa looks like it is made of bubbles.  Frank Gehry’s 1970 “Red Beaver” chaise and ottoman is made from layers of pressed cardboard painted red.  Le Corbusier’s 1928 lounge chair made from steel covered in polyester, leather and animal hide was an inspiration for a modern version in red polyurethane by Belgian furniture designer Maarten Van Severen in 2000.

I was particularly enamoured with the elegant, yet unadorned train compartments designed in 1934 by Belgian painter, architect and interior designer Henry van de Velde, who worked in the Art Nouveau style in his early career, and later played a role in establishing the Bauhaus style as part of the German Werkbund association.  Van de Velde created this train interior while he was artistic advisor for the National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS).   The two compartments had plush velour seats, netted overhead bins, metal coat hooks, carpeted floors and were surrounded by beautiful smooth, sleek wooden panels.  Leaning towards modernism, no trace of the ornamentation or embellishments of the former Art Nouveau style was present.  The rounded edges and shapes formed by the panels on the sides of the seats were particularly appealing.  The compartment on the left was for smoking and included an ashtray in the little side table by the window, while the one on the right was non-smoking.  The sign accompanying the exhibit indicated that a first and second class compartment had been donated to the museum, but other than the difference in the colours of the seats, I could not tell the difference between the two sides.  Or perhaps these were both the first class compartments and the second class got to sit on the little fold-down wooden seat on the outside wall?

Another highlight of the Ghent Design Museum is the Alonso International Glass Collection, accumulated by Spanish diplomat Antonio Alonso.  Alonso was fascinated by the qualities and technical possibilities of glass design.  His favourite designs were by “Val Saint-Lambert”, a Belgian crystal glassware manufacturer founded in 1826 that was the official glassware supplier to King Albert II, 6th King of Belgian from 1993 to 2013.  The signature piece by Val Saint-Lambert is called the “Oignons de Jemeppe”, beautifully decorated vases made from opal glass mixed with translucent and opaque enamels, shaped like onion bulbs with a long stems.  The colours and patterns imprinted on these pieces were stunning.

There was a section featuring designs by contemporary artists including works that looked like modern interpretations totem poles, as well as examples of wallpaper, rugs, material, clothing and decorative arts. The rug by Christoph Hefti (2015) called “The Visitors” is made from dyed wool and silks, and reflects mystical and spiritual themes inspired by his travels to Nepal.  I was fascinated by a floor covering by Sophie Schreinemacher (2016), made of connected pieces of wood shaped like diamonds, that could be shifted in shape so that it seemed more like a puzzle than a rug.  I watched an animated video where this object seemed to take on a life of its own, morphing into various forms so that it could tuck behind a door or under a stool.  I also liked the “day bed” by Hannes van Severen (2014), made from many layers of what looks like multi-coloured felt, with some of the layers rolled up to form a pillow.  I’m not sure how functional or comfortable this “bed” would be, but it definitely looked cool and stylish.

The Ghent Design Museum is currently in the process of re-curating their permanent collection, so many items were not on the display floors.  Instead, an area called the “Storage Depot” contained many of the pieces, stored on metal shelves stacked four levels high.  We could walk along the aisles of the shelves and inspect the items including chairs, stools, end tables, lamps, pottery, glassware, decorative arts and vintage electronics.  There were some very beautiful and interesting pieces tucked away in these shelves but the items on the upper shelves were difficult to get a close look at.  It will be nice when they get displayed properly in the galleries again.

Prior to heading back to our home swap in Antwerp, we wanted to have a leisurely lunch to make up for the rushed snack we ate the day before, in order to make it to our walking tour in time.  It was great that we had a rail pass that allowed us to board any train at any time as opposed to a fixed ticket, so we really were not under any time pressure.   We wandered back to the Old Port area and since it was a relatively warm and sunny day compared to the day before, we opted for a restaurant with an outdoor patio so that we could have a view of the water and the street life around the port.  We picked the restaurant De Graslei and after venturing away from it the night before, we were back to dining on traditional Belgian fare.  We were given an amuse-bouche of a fish paté on toast, followed by another cheese croquette and a pepper steak with fries.  At this point, the meal was nothing special since we had eaten similar dishes for almost two weeks now, but the ambience was wonderful.  We had a nice time chatting with an old British couple that sat next to us who were just in town for the day as part of a cruise.

After lunch, we watched the boaters and kayakers enjoying the nice weather on the canal, before heading back to the hotel to pick up our luggage.  Because we chose to stay in a hotel this time, it was no problem to leave our bags with the front desk after checking out.  Along the way, we spotted a mural with references to scenes from the Ghent Altarpiece, which we had spent so much time admiring the day before.  Once we had our bags, it was back to the busy Korenmarkt where we would catch the bus that would take us once again to the Ghent train station.