CID – Grand Hornu

The CID – Centre d’Innovation et de Design (Center for innovation and design) at Grand Hornu is a cultural center established to promote contemporary design.

History and site
The Grand Hornu is a former mining complex now converted into one of the most important centers for contemporary culture in Belgium. Located at short distance from the cities of Mons and Valenciennes, the neoclassical building complex of the Grand Hornu, a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site from 2012, was built between 1810 and 1830 by entrepreneur Henri De Gorge as an “ideal industrial city”.
Indeed, the mining complex, based on utopian principles, along with factories and offices, included 450 houses for miners, each with a private garden, a school, an hospital, public spaces, a library, and a ballroom.

What to see at the CID Grand Hornu
After, in the mid-fifties, the mining activity ceased, from the 1970s the process to convert the complex into a cultural venue begun. In the 1980s the non-profit association “Grand-Hornu Images”, now CID, was established in the place to promote culture and tourism on the site by organizing exhibitions, mostly focused on the relationship between art and industry, as well as between product manufacturing and applied arts.

photos: cover Vue de la cathédrale © Grand-Hornu Images; Banner: photo by Charles KAISIN by Vange, 1 Statue Henry Degorge © Grand-Hornu Images; 2 Photo Michel de Cubber; 3 © photo by David Marchal. All images courtesy and © Grand-Hornu Images