Art nouveau & Art déco biennial event 2013
Over the four weekends in October 2013, Voir et Dire Bruxelles invites you to discover the architectural variety of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, two major styles of architecture in Brussels.
Exceptional opening of the Solvay, Max Hallet and Ciamberlani houses
On the first Saturdays of May, June, September, November and December, come and discover three of the most beautiful Art Nouveau interiors in Brussels...
161 Totally Horta
This three-hour coach tour explores the remaining buildings of Victor Horta, the leading Belgian Art nouveau architect. A unique opportunity to find out more about the buildings designed by this architectural genius through an examination of three of them: a luxury townhouse (Van Eetvelde house), a primary school (Saint-Ghislain kindergarten) and a former wholesale drapery shop (Waucquez store).
→ At 9:45 am on Saturday 27/4, 25/5, 28/9 and 30/11
- 3:00
- 17 €
- ARAU
152 Art nouveau mansions
Exceptional opening to the public of three Art Nouveau mansions
Max Hallet House
346, Avenue Louise, 1000 Brussels
A masterpiece by Victor Horta built between 1902 and 1905, this house combines living accommodation with huge, light-filled reception spaces where curves and counter-curves reflect each other harmoniously in splendid stained-glass skylights and windows.
Guided tour at 10am in English and at 10.30am in French.
Price : €25 per person
Solvay House
224, Avenue Louise, 1000 Brussels
This was Victor Horta’s largest private house, commissioned by the industrial magnate Armand Solvay. Construction began in 1894, and the architect expressed the principle of a “total work of art” by successfully combining top-quality materials with innovative techniques.
Guided tour at 11.30am in English and 12 noon in French
Price: €40 per person
Ciamberlani House
48, Rue Defacqz, 1050 Brussels
Completed in 1897 by the architect Paul Hankar, the Ciamberlani house and its spectacular facade sgraffiti have undergone an exemplary restoration. Hankar’s geometric Art Nouveau is expressed in the reception areas as much as in the design of the unusual windows which flood the first floor with daylight.
Guided tour at 2pm in English and 2.30pm in French
Price: €25 per person
Places on the guided tours must be reserved in advance
Advanced payment required
→ On Saturdays 4th May, 1st June, 7th September, 2nd November and 7th December 2013
- 1:00
- 25 €
- Voir et Dire Bruxelles
156 Brussels 1900 - Art nouveau
Over the last 30 years, this coach tour has proved the most popular and well-known of ARAU’s tours. The tour helps participants to understand the place of Art nouveau in Brussels, its origins, its technical and stylistic characteristics, and the personalities of its most well-known architects. The tour travels through several districts of the city to show participants beautiful Art nouveau facades, some of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The tour also offers the chance to visit extraordinary Art nouveau interiors, including some not normally open to the public.
Each tour includes at least two interiors from the following list, subject to availability: Victor Horta’s Van Eetvelde house, Jules Brunfaut’s Hannon house, Henri Jacobs’ Schaerbeek School No.1, Victor Horta’s Waucquez store (now the Belgian Strip Cartoon Centre), Paul Hamesse’s Cohn-Donnay house (now De Ultieme Hallucinatie bar-restaurant).
→ Each Saturday on 10 am from mid-April till mid-December, bilingual english and french except on the Saturdays in October (only in English at 9.45 am)
- 3:00
- 17 €
- ARAU
154 Art nouveau and Art Deco in the Horta area
Art nouveau offers a wide range of variations, each one more original than the next. Some are geometrical buildings, others organic, all of them showing amazing distinctive features which reflect the fealings of architects or commissioners. Arkadia.be takes you in Horta's old district to reveal Art nouveau as an ever-surprising and fascinating kaleidoscope.
→ At 2 pm, on Sunday 6/10
- 2:00
- 9 €
- Arkadia.be
160 The squares district or the zenith of Art nouveau
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Maelbeek valley offered a unique setting for the development of a new residential district. Its squares, water features, fountains and tree-lined avenues attracted wealthy middle-class residents who commissioned the most talented architects of the period to design their homes. The district became a veritable laboratory of late nineteenth-century architecture, with facades in a wide variety of styles, from unfettered Eclecticism to Art nouveau, then at its zenith.
→ At 2 pm, on Sunday 6/10
- 2:30
- 13 €
- ARAU
159 The Ixelles Ponds, from town house to apartment building
As the twentieth century progressed, the inhabitants of Brussels progressively lost their attachment to individual houses and began to enjoy the apartment lifestyle, encouraged by the 1924 co-ownership law and the social upheavals of the time. This change has had a profound effect on the city, its architecture and lifestyles. The Ixelles Ponds district offers a remarkable panorama of some of the best twentieth-century buildings in Brussels, from Art nouveau via Art Deco to Modernism.
→ At 2 pm, on Sunday 13/10
- 2:30
- 10 €
- ARAU
155 Art nouveau in the Marolles
The Marolles is a real melting-pot. Often the first port of call for new arrivals in the city, the city authorities developed an innovative approach to social housing and public health there. In the early twentieth century, two schools, a huge wine warehouse, an artist’s home and studio and an extraordinary social housing estate were built there in the Art nouveau style. The tour also shows how these iconic Art nouveau buildings have been renovated and re-used to reinforce the unique atmosphere of this resolutely working-class part of the city centre.
→ At 2 pm, on Sunday 20/10
- 2:30
- 13 €
- ARAU
158 Taverns that tell the splendours of Art nouveau and Art Deco…
The pre war Brussels pubs offer a wide variety of atmospheres and many of them have kept their Art nouveau or Art Deco decoration. The stained glass windows, elegant curved woodwork, precious fabrics, mirrors and shining counters are still witnesses of the Belle Époque, the Roaring Twenties & Jazzy Thirties. They also tell about the evolution of the trends and tastes: from the well-lit, big & noisy brasseries of the turn of the century to the more discreet, cosy and intimate bars of the interwar period. Shall we visit them together ?
Including two drinks.
→ At 8 pm, on Saturday 26/10
- 17 €
- Bus Bavard
157 Horta, Hankar and Co. : major expressions of Art nouveau…
In the spotlight are the architects who so boldly revolutionised the art of building at the end of the 19th century. Their buildings are striking manifestoes of Art nouveau, an art which spread with such felicity in this country, and which are evidence of extraordinary creativity and talent both in the mansions themselves and in their decoration.
→ At 10:30 am on Sunday 27/10
- 2:30
- 9 €
- Bus Bavard
153 Art Deco and Modernism in Uccle
On the outskirts of the city, the former village of Uccle became, in the inter-war years, a particularly desirable residential area for the inhabitants of Brussels. The speed with which the district was built up gave it a very homogenous architectural style between Art Deco and Modernism. This guided tour illustrates the different architectural styles of the period and the decorative delights to be found on some facades.
→ At 2 pm, on Sunday 27/10
- 2:30
- 10 €
- ARAU