The Pass is a museum. A museum dedicated to science, technology and society. But a new kind of museum: "the other museum". There are no collections here - instead there are exhibitions and shows covering an area of 12,000 m² (130,000 sq.ft.), inviting visitors to interact, to make the most of their curiosity and to reach an opinion about the role of science and technology in our society. And there is the 28-hectare (69-acre) park, an integral part of the exhibition space, where visitors become explorers. The Pass is a place where you can touch, listen, look, read a little; where you can form opinions, dream; a place where, for once, curiosity is a positive advantage. The site itself is unusual, too. A former colliery in the Borinage area of the Hainaut region, in Wallonia. The original buildings, protected as part of the country's industrial heritage (the Belvedere, the Pit-Head Frame, the Machine Room) and reconsecrated to culture and science on the initiative of the Wallonia Region and the European Union, are complemented by new architecture which fits in perfectly with the site's industrial character and its history - past or future.