The project is located along the ring road in the north-west of Charleroi. The cultural slag heap is an exhibition and creative space dedicated to artists from Charleroi, linked to the Zenobe Gramme campus.
The shape of the project is an analogy with a slag heap, no longer the result of industrial activity but of cultural activity. This new slag heap marks the need for these post-industrial towns to reinvent themselves while retaining the identity of the place and its history. The slag heap is formed by a combination of two spiral ramps that meet at the top to offer a slow, continuous walk inside and outside the building. The inside is dedicated to exhibitions and the outside is a public park, in reference to the oblique function written by the architects Claude Parent and Paul Virilio. A staircase in the façade and the lift bypass the ramps, while the external lift also serves as an anchor and landmark in the city. The workshops are located under the ring. The interior structure is a diagrid generated by parametric geometry software, a symbol of innovation and technology.