Designed by Bleckmann Krys Architekten + Pool Leber Architekten, The kult is a new cultural hub for the town of Vreden and a vibrant focal point on its cultural route. It combines a 1.400 sqm artistic-historical museum with the cultural administration of the district, the local archives, an educational space, a city market, a shopping area and spaces for events and temporary exhibitions.

The centre aims to walk the delicate line between sensitively integrating itself in the medieval heritage and establishing a contemporary landmark that actively contributes to Vreden?s cultural and social life. Its sculptural is directly developed from the context, extending the small-scale structure of the housing along Vreden’s medieval wall and defining the town’s edge. Photography: Brígida González
A new urban cultural route begins in the town surroundings and enters Vreden over a moat and through the kult: it is in its atrium that the route intersects with the building’s central and vertical axes, the latter leading up through a sculptural staircase into the museum areas. From this point, the visitors have a clear overview of a complex ensemble and functions.

The staircase itself is not only a distribution space for the different exhibition areas but is also the representative backdrop of the atrium, which is also used for conferences, festivals, and concerts. In total, two new bodies have been added to the four existing ones, shaping a complex that covers...