Kanal #1: Thinking

In November 2026, the new Kanal museum of modern and contemporary art, architecture, and landscape architecture will open in Brussels. Operated in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, it will be one of Europe's largest cultural venues, with space for up to ten exhibitions at a time over 49,000 m2 of floor space. The building itself is one of Kanal's main attractions: the converted former headquarters of French car manufacturer Citroën's Belgian branch with its landmark showroom-a 21-m-high cathedral of the automobile made of concrete, steel, and glass. Kanal #1: Thinking is the first part of a three-part journal by Atelier Kanal, the consortium formed by architecture firms EM2N (Zurich), noAarchitecten (Brussels), and Sergison Bates Architects (London and Zurich) that won the commission to convert the Citroën garage, built in the 1930s, into an arts and culture center for the 21st century. It explores a collaborative working method in which boundaries of individual authorship were blurred and co-authorship became the norm. A polyphonic concert of images, texts, voices, and perspectives, this attractive book highlights the spirit of exchange and collaboration that shapes this novel cultural venue. AUTHORS: Stephen Bates is a founding partner of design firm Sergison Bates architects, with offices in London, Zurich, and Brussels. He is also a professor of urban planning and housing at the Technical University of Munich. An Fonteyne is a founding partner of Brussels-based firm noAarchitecten in Brussels and a professor of affective architectures in the Department of Architecture at ETH Zürich. SELLING POINTS: . Volume 1 of a three-part journal documenting the unique collaborative design and construction process to convert a 1930s car factory in Brussels into Kanal, an arts and culture centre for the 21st century . Offers insights into the vision and creative dynamics of Atelier Kanal, a consortium formed by EM2N (Zurich), noAarchitecten (Brussels), and Sergison Bates architects (London, Zurich, Brussels) . Explores the architects' ideals for the project from submission to planning permission and their self-reflection on collaborative work methods . Attractive book design with texts, visual essays, plans, and drawings 293 colour, 52 b/w illustrations