THE COACHHOUSE

The Coach House lies in the garden of a neoclassical mansion that was built in 1928-29 by textile manufacturer Edmond Meert. This stately home is located in the main shopping street (Stationstraat) in Sint-Niklaas that connects the town’s Main Square with the station.  This building currently bears the name ‘Salons for Fine Arts’ and houses a painting collection. In recent years the adjoining coach house fell into significant disrepair, making demolition one of the options.

Arts platform WARP signed a lease with the city of Sint-Niklaas and undertook improvement works in order to be able to use the building as an exhibition space, office and meeting place. Thanks to the help of volunteers, the VDAB (job centre) training service and many businesses that lent their logistic support, what was originally a ruin has grown to be a location of true value in the city centre of Sint-Niklaas.

The sadly missed top architect and city planner Jo Crepain (1950-2008) visited the Coach House several times in 2007. With his office Crepain Binst Architecture he realised a surprising design to extend the existing building further. With this visionary design Jo Crepain focused the attention of a small organisation on the possibilities the future continues to hold. Generously donating his time and ideas, he developed a plan with an accompanying scale model.

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Location

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Sponsors

Without support from our sponsoirs it would have been impossible for WARP to renovate the coachhouse. We would like to thank our sponsors for that.

Altrad | Centrum Jan Van Rijswijck | D'Eer | Eternit | Eupen | Gyproc | Houtshop Van Der Gucht | Joossens | Levis | Niko | Philip Verplancke bvba | Piessens electro | Polypane | Remmers FTB | Rockwool | Troubleyn | Truyens Advocaten | Umicore | VDAB | Velux | Willy Willockx |