Subtle acts of resistance: Contentious national heritage and adaptive reuse

Abstract

This article will reflect on some of the iconographic properties of the building projects developed under ‘builder king’ Leopold II. We will focus on the Royal Art and History Museum, located in the monumental Parc du Cinquantenaire, as one of the five national museums in and around Brussels initiated by the king. In addition, we will present a selection of research-by-design projects that restaged the museum from within, all of which were designed between 2019 and 2020 by students in the International Master on Adaptive Reuse programme. Beyond adapting the museum to current standards, the students addressed institutional representation and national symbolism in a subversive way, demonstrating the potential of adaptive reuse to transform the meaning of contentious heritage. The examples serve as subtle acts of resistance to the archaic and controversial character of the site, aiming to revive the Art and History Museum as a cultural landmark with a positive identity.