Actions Published on 16/04/2026

The Charleroi Exhibition Center Wins the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Awards 2026

On 16 April 2026 in Oulu, European Capital of Culture, the Brussels-based office AgwA, in collaboration with the Ghent-based office architecten jan de vylder inge vinck, was awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Awards 2026, one of the most prestigious distinctions in European architecture.

For the first time, a project from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation receives this major recognition: the Palais des Expositions de Charleroi (CHAPEX). The jury praised the project for its ability to work with the existing rather than replace it, transforming constraints and limitations into genuine design drivers.

A landmark European recognition

Organised by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe and the European Commission, the award honours outstanding architectural achievements across Europe. In this context, Wallonie-Bruxelles Architectures acts as nominator for projects from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, contributing to their visibility and recognition on the European stage.

For this 2026 edition, the Palais des Expositions was selected from 410 nominated projects, before being shortlisted among the seven finalists visited by the jury across Europe. These on-site visits constituted a key stage in the process, allowing for an in-depth evaluation of each project’s quality and impact ahead of the final deliberations.

The award ceremony will take place on 11 and 12 May 2026 in Barcelona, at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, as part of the EU Mies Awards Days. This two-day event, organised within the framework of Barcelona World Capital of Architecture 2026, will bring together architects, clients, policymakers and jury members for a programme of discussions, presentations and exchanges with the finalist and winning teams. Wallonie-Bruxelles Architectures (WBA) will be present alongside the AgwA team for a conference.

Transforming without erasing

In her article on the project (The architectural review - 09/25), critic, historian and ICA director Audrey Contesse describes a building “radically transformed, emerging within a politically turbulent landscape.” She retraces the intense history of this structure, built in 1954 as a symbol of Charleroi’s industrial power, later abandoned following the decline of coal and steel industries.

She highlights the symbolic significance of its reopening in 2024, after seven years of construction: once vacant, the building became a polling station during local elections, revealing its deep connection to the civic life of the city.

The project by AgwA and AJDVIV is based on a careful reading of the original structure and on a strategy of targeted interventions and subtraction.

While some proposals in the international competition suggested partial demolition and the insertion of a new central structure, AgwA and AJDVIV chose instead an approach of reduction, revelation and recomposition:

to the north, a vast volume beneath restored shed roofs, intentionally left raw and unheated ;
at the centre, an open-air space transformed into a vertical garden, where glass-brick domes interact with vegetation. The demineralisation of certain surfaces transforms former built areas into a continuous vegetated landscape, establishing a new relationship between interior and exterior ;
at ground level, a large hall reconnected to the city via rue de l’Ancre. The central hall is reinterpreted as a sequence of covered urban terraces, while the spatial organisation is rethought to improve circulation and uses.

The project fully engages with the site’s sloping topography while preserving the building’s fundamental qualities: scale, rationality and monumentality.

This strategy asserts an “open” architecture, one that does not close in on itself but allows for future adaptations.

“We know the paint will last around twenty years. And then? We don’t know,” says Harold Fallon, co-founder of AgwA. “Perhaps by then, users will have installed new façades. Buildings evolve in this way.”

The project is thus conceived not as a fixed object, but as a framework for future uses.

Credits

Authors: AgwA; architecten jan de vylder inge vinck
Collaborators:
Landscape design — Denis Dujardin
Interior architecture — Doorzon Interieurarchitecten
Building physics — Bureau Greisch
Structure — Bureau Greisch
Fire safety & accessibility — Delta GC
Acoustics — progrs
Contractors consortium — Bémat-Moury-Koeckelberg-Duchêne
Site area: 37,700 m²
Total gross floor area: 50,000 m²
Client: City of Charleroi
Cost: €1,075/m²