Blog | Villa Empain: a genuine Art Deco gem in the heart of Brussels

In every issue of ABSoluut, the magazine we produce for ABS Bouwteam, we engage two parties in discussions over architecture. In this edition, Anton Gonnissen, editor of this magazine, visits Villa Empain in Brussels with architect Nicolas Schuybroek. Right in the heart of the embassy quarter and close to Terkamerenbos, this iconic Art Deco building blends clean geometry, a balanced play of light and shadow, exquisite dimensions and a wealth of materials into one stunning gesamtkunstwerk (‘total work of art’). This building is close to Schuybroek’s heart: ‘With all the Bauhaus influences at play here, Villa Empain is a real gem of the Art Deco world.’

‘You can really feel the shift here’, notes Anton. ‘It’s the true origins of how we think about architecture today’. Nicolas agrees: ‘Absolutely. It’s so pure. You have the opulent and luxurious use of materials without it becoming too ornamental, typical of classic Art Deco or Art Nouveau architecture’. While top Belgian architect Nicolas Schuybroek visits nearly every exhibition at Villa Empain, our tour starts somewhere he hasn’t been before. On the top floor of this Brussels Art Deco temple, besides the former solarium of original owner Baron Louis Empain and an Art Deco meeting room, you will find the offices of the museum team, which is naturally closed to the public. Nicolas: ‘When I was little, we lived just outside the capital, with Avenue Franklin Roosevelt serving as our gateway into Brussels. As the then Belgian base for Luxembourg TV channel RTL, the building came across as a standard structure with all the allure of a concrete bunker. There seemed nothing special about it. In the 1990s, photos circulated of the property showing it in quite a dilapidated state. It was being used by squatters, and had pretty much become a self-service kiosk for anyone fond of fine materials such as zinc, copper, granite and bronze. It was all gone. As such, I find it incredible what the Boghossian family, in collaboration with restaurateur Francis Metzger, have managed to achieve here. For this project, Metzger enlisted only the finest craftsmen who still mastered the required time-honoured techniques. Very few Art Deco buildings have been so lovingly preserved or restored. This makes Villa Empain truly unique.’

3,500 m2 of solid granite
To understand the building, you first need to go back to the first half of the last century. After designing both the Résidence Palace in 1923 and Hotel Le Plaza in 1928 according to the sleek, modern lines of Art Deco, Swiss architect Michel Polak began work on Villa Empain in 1930. Baron Louis Empain was in his early twenties and had inherited a vast fortune. Owing to his standing, he deemed it appropriate to occupy a suitable residence. As such, Polak designed a 3,500 m² detached villa in polished granite. Today, the spacious residence with surrounding gardens, pool and pergola exudes elegance with its travertine marble, bronze and exotic wood finish, along with decorative elements such as mosaic floors and exquisite glasswork. Nicolas: ‘Villa Empain is very much at odds with who the owner was as a person. Baron Empain was an austere and demure figure, not one to indulge in hosting fancy get-togethers and dinner parties. And if the walls could talk, they would tell tales of the decadent parties that took place here during the 1930s, mostly in the absence of the baron himself, who only lived there for a total of six months.’

Following its donation by Baron Empain to the Belgian state in 1937, Villa Empain would embark on a long journey, first as a museum, then as an occupied building during the Second World War, before eventually becoming an embassy for the USSR. In 1963, the building was reacquired by the baron, unable to stomach the idea of his villa being used by the Russian authorities. From 1965, Villa Empain would go on to serve as a cultural centre, be acquired by nv Tobesco and even become the headquarters of RTL in Belgium. In 2001, the villa was added to the Brussels heritage preservation list, only to subsequently fall foul of acts of vandalism over the following years. In 2007, Albert and Jean Boghossian purchased Villa Empain to establish the headquarters of the Boghossian Foundation. In the same year, the villa became listed as a protected monument by the Brussels Capital Region. This was followed by four years of meticulous, complex and particularly delicate restoration, seeing the Baveno granite cladding cleaned, the brass corner fittings re-gilded with gold leaf, the copper roofs and interior panelling replaced, and so on. In 2010, Villa Empain reopened its doors as a cultural centre, tasked with keeping alive the dialogue between Western and Eastern art to this day. In 2011, the villa’s restoration was awarded the Europa Nostra Award. ‘Who said heritage has to be boring?’, remarks Anton. ‘Time for coffee?’

A combat sport
The villa’s café, complete with custom furniture and American bar – a must-have in the 1930s – would play host to opulent parties. Its window looks out onto a small terrace, with century-old pine trees in the background that date back to when the villa was first built. Anton: ‘In this residence, there’s a noticeable obsession with proportions. When looking at your work, Nicolas, I can certainly understand your fascination with this building. The property is built around an internal atrium, a veritable epicentre of activity for the property. This makes it a very liveable space, with a layout that’s incredibly easy to navigate. You intuitively get a sense of how and where to go, what to expect where – a small space, a larger space, an important space, a third-rate box room, a service area, and so on’. Nicolas: ‘And then you arrive here, in the café. This space has been elaborately decorated with exquisite materials, such as polished Bubinga wood panels, which aren’t available or even allowed to be sold today. This space is also slightly darker than the rest of the house. Such small pockets work particularly well, acting as a kind of surprise for visitors’. Also on the list of exotic materials at Villa Empain: Escalette and Bois Jourdan marble, Palu wood from India, Manilkara wood from Venezuela and burr walnut. You name it.

Anton wants to know whether Nicolas thinks that quality of materials and craftsmen is the same as back then, if still present at all. ‘We are extremely lucky to live in such a small country, where the level of craftsmanship is so sky-high’, responds Nicolas. ‘Take West Flanders, more specifically the region between Kortrijk and Ghent. Nowhere else will you see such an array of structural work, external joinery, natural stone, metalwork and plastering techniques. It’s incredible. To find that level of craftsmanship abroad, you’re either faced with greater distances or much higher prices. That’s why our Belgian experts are often sought out for projects overseas. And since there’s no architecture without craftsmanship, this deserves our utmost respect.’

Anton also wants to know whether Nicholas thinks it is still possible to build such residential masterpieces in today’s architectural landscape. ‘It’s becoming increasingly difficult to carry out such complete projects from start to finish, especially in Europe. From the building’s shell to door handles especially designed to suit the project. The growing mountain of red tape makes it difficult to deliver anything special. For many architects, architecture has become somewhat of a combat sport. In his terrifically entitled book L’Architecture est un sport de combat (‘Architecture is a combat sport’), Rudy Ricciotti presents the struggle of getting in the ring each day, defending your project to all manner of authority, as well as the owner themselves’, explains Nicolas.

The Robey Art Deco hotel
Speaking of combat sports, this is somewhat reminiscent to the beginnings of Nicolas Schuybroek’s career. After studying in Montreal, he began working with Canadian architect Jean Beaudoin. He then went on to work with Vincent Van Duysen for five years, before finally starting his own firm in 2011. ‘In retrospect, my early years were quite difficult. In all honesty, with a young family at the time, it was a very intense period. If only I could have read the story behind a project in my early years. What is the time or energy? What are the frustrations and misunderstandings you have to go through to get the desired result? I often find such stories as interesting as the buildings themselves. I didn’t have an address book full of VIPs that I could call on to get ahead. It’s my story, and it’s been my efforts alone that have got to me where I am today. No family ties or family money, just the overwhelming support of my loving wife. It’s been an organic story so far, with a huge amount of work and discipline’. Today, Schuybroek manages a team of eight employees, just enough to handle everything without needing an assistant to monitor proceedings and follow people up. He says he has no ambition to build this into a larger firm.

And as we step out of the café for a breath of fresh air in the garden, Nicolas continues: ‘Our project at The Robey Art Deco hotel in Chicago weighed very heavily on my personal life. However, at the same time, it pretty much launched my career. We learnt a huge amount from it, especially in terms of aesthetics and organisation. We even ended up in Mexico at the private residence of hotel founder Moisés Micha. This gave my portfolio a somewhat international flavour. What’s also fascinating about working in Mexico is that you have more technical freedom to ‘do your thing’, along with a high level of craftsmanship. The flipside of this is that you’re working remotely. That takes time and energy, and you have to practise letting go of certain things’. Anton: ‘We call this ‘gérance à distance’ (‘remote management’)’. Nicolas: ‘Ha, I’ll have to remember that one.’

The envelope of the house
If the architect were to reserve one point of criticism, it would be the garden at Villa Empain. While the pool and pergola act as a real eye-catcher and a crowd-pleaser, the greenery around the villa offers little more than a mere non-distinct bush in the background. Nicolas: ‘The garden is the ‘envelope of the house’, so to speak. For me, one cannot separate it from the architecture and interior of any given residence. That’s why we design from the outside in, picking a landscape architect for each project, who themselves help determine the narrative of the entire project’. As the duo make their way back inside, towards the villa’s exit, they stop for a moment by the coloured glass ceiling, with motifs representing the Milky Way and the signs of the zodiac – or at least a free interpretation thereof. A fine detail for those with an eye for such things. ‘At this unique moment in human history, where we all carry a digital window to the world in our pockets, a visit to Villa Empain is an analogue breath of fresh air’, according to Anton.

(Text: Leslie Vanhecke - Photography: Tim Van de Velde)

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