Het Steen

A visitor center inside Antwerp’s oldest building, made of stories, people, and places.

Visit Antwerp, Antwerp (BE), 2021

Parent and child closely examining the drawers of a historic wooden cabinet in a red-patterned room at Het Steen, discovering tactile and visual elements of Antwerp’s past.

Overview

Het Steen, the oldest building in Antwerp, has been transformed into a visitor center that offers an immersive introduction to the city. Visitors explore the castle along an 11-room path, discovering diverse neighborhoods, iconic landmarks and examples of Antwerp’s vibrant culture. The experience provides a comprehensive view of what makes Antwerp truly unique.

  • Female visitor touching a vertical touchscreen display embedded in a large cabinet structure, revealing layered stories through artworks and animated content.
  • Distant view of an immersive theatrical installation, with a woman seated in the foreground watching life-sized projections of actors in costume performing inside a recreated artist’s studio.
  • Child seated among oversized wooden architectural models, gazing up in awe at a screen embedded in the wooden structure above.
  • Woman looking up inside a vertical wooden structure with a digital ceiling screen displaying a kaleidoscopic architectural animation.
  • Child interacting with a large touchscreen display embedded in a wooden exhibit structure, surrounded by architectural models and warm lighting.

Contribution

I managed the design of the visual and multimedia elements, translating the visual approach into a variety of interactive experiences, 360° projections, and immersive installations. The aim was to create a seamless connection between the city’s rich history and its contemporary energy, offering visitors an entertaining and intriguing journey.

  • Woman exploring a room lined with life-size vertical screens, each presenting cultural stories and visuals from different neighborhoods of Antwerp.
  • Woman using a large horizontal touchscreen map alongside a wooden scale model of Antwerp, in a sunlit room with tall windows.
  • Woman and child inside an immersive panoramic projection room with floor-to-ceiling visuals of a car terminal and cargo ship.
  • Woman and child engaging with a large interactive map table; both smiling and pointing to different elements on the digital surface in a warmly lit room.

Key achievements

  • Merged past, present, and future in one story
  • Created content for a broad, multilingual audience
  • Aligned efforts with EU partners for consistency
  • Woman interacting with a horizontal touchscreen exhibit focused on craftsmanship and local industry, featuring large visuals and text in a softly lit space.
  • Woman standing in a dimly lit attic space, listening to an audio track through a handset while interacting with a touchscreen display embedded in a wooden podium.
  • Two women and a child observing a large vertical digital display showing a high-resolution reproduction of a classical painting, inside a bright gallery space with tall windows.
  • A child sits on the floor while a woman stands nearby, both immersed in an interactive installation where colorful visuals and texts about Antwerp’s creative industry are projected onto the floor and wall.

Credits

Role: Art Director | Lead Designer
Employer: Studio Louter
Client: Visit Antwerp
Photography: Ocular

© All rights reserved to Studio Louter

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Get in touch! Close-up of a woman gazing at a large colonial painting depicting a noblewoman with children. The woman stands in a dark gallery lit by focused spotlights on the artworks.

Awarded

Shifting Image

Mauritshuis, The Hague (NL)