Ghent puts design in the window: museum week heads into the city

Belgium · Design

A radio broadcast inside the museum and designs in shop windows give Design Fest Gent a visible presence. The programme surrounding the reopening of Design Museum Gent runs until 11 October.

This week, Café Costume is paired with Elisabeth Terrisse de Botton and Matthieu Brasebin; the Paard van Troje bookshop with Xander Maclaren. The shops are participating in Windows of Design, a route that turns windows into temporary exhibition spaces. A walk through Ghent can therefore take in fashion, books, glasses and chocolate-making, with designers presenting their work along the way.

The route is part of the activities surrounding Design Museum Gent’s reopening on 3 October. By this Tuesday, the opening weekend celebrations are over, but Design Fest Gent continues until Sunday 11 October. The activities page lists a range of projects, from furniture and metal constructions to work by young Belgian designers.

From shop window to meeting place

The window route is free and appears in the calendar for 3–11 October. Curator Siegrid Demyttenaere brought together the participating designers and shops. The pairings are specific: Janne Claes at Chocolate Maker, Heleen Sintobin at Odette Lunettes and Studio Verbaan at Huis Mortier. A shop temporarily takes on a second role, offering a place to encounter design outside the museum gallery.

More than thirty shops are participating in the route. Use the organisers’ current route map to find the locations.

We Are The Next Generation also takes the programme into the city. The museum announces thirty graduation projects at BROEI. In Under Construction, in the former Gouvernementshuis, the makers take the construction of their work as their starting point. Their furniture, objects and installations combine metal with other materials and techniques.

On Tuesday, the museum is a radio studio too

A broadcast of Klara’s arts programme Pompidou is scheduled for 6 October. Nicky Aerts welcomes guests in Design Museum Gent’s Forum. The broadcast runs from 5pm to 6pm, is in Dutch and, according to the event page, is free to attend. No registration is required.

The gathering fits the direction the museum describes on its website. When the museum began in 1903, its collection offered makers examples for their own designs. Today, it also wants to reveal the questions behind a design and provide a place for discussion. That explains the combination of the collection, a conversation with guests and projects beyond the building.

An exhibition on the design of democracy

Inside, Public Matter(s): Design and Democracy is scheduled until 11 April 2027. Curators Amelie Klein and Vera Sacchetti examine how political ideas take shape, from the design of a ballot paper to the question of how nature can have a voice. The exhibition also considers alternatives, including selection by lot and rights for nature.

The presentation includes the Democracy Workout, with exercises concerning listening and empathy, among other subjects. The museum thus distinguishes between looking at a design and investigating its rules yourself. The temporary exhibition is included in the museum ticket; the free window route and radio broadcast have their own admission arrangements.

Practical information

Design Museum Gent: Drabstraat 10, 9000 Ghent. The regular schedule lists weekdays 9.30am–5.30pm, with the museum closed on Wednesdays; weekends 10am–6pm. The festival programme gives individual activity times. Pompidou is scheduled in the Forum on 6 October, 5pm–6pm.

Standard admission from age 26: €15; ages 19–25: €7.50. Admission is free up to and including age 18 and with the Belgian museum pass. The courtyard garden and new wing are accessible without a museum ticket. Museum tickets can be booked in advance with a time slot. The window route is free. Visitor information dated 4 October 2026.