The Boekentoren (Tower of Books / Book-Tower) is currently in the midst of restoration.

In 1933 Ghent University commissioned Henry van de Velde to design a library and a building for the Higher Institute of Art History and Archaeology. He opted for an extremely unorthodox tower and applied to it his formula involving light, perfect proportions and superior materials.

In 2002, André Singer purchased the original plans for the tower, saw what had gone wrong over the years and convinced the university that it should carry out thorough restoration. This started in 2012 and, if all goes well, will be completed in 2021.

This website is mainly intended to present the history of the building.

An account of recent developments is to be found on Facebook (Boekentoren Bouwblog) and images are available on Vimeo (Boekentoren 2.0).



