Diane Hennebert, the director of the Boghossian Foundation, recalls the appalling state of the building when they bought it in 2006. “It was extremely damaged,” she says, explaining how the previous owner had wanted to turn the building into offices. “The walls had been pulled down, damaging the parquet floors, the mouldings, the marble ... Everything had to be rebuilt.”
The building had been unoccupied and neglected for some 15 years. The foundation quickly secured the necessary permit to restore the villa. “It was a priority case. It wouldn’t have survived another couple of winters as there were also holes in the roof,” explains Hennebert, who has also worked on projects at the Atomium, Flagey and Tours & Taxis. The restoration of Villa Empain, carried out at a cost of €7 million between 2008 and 2010, was done true to the original 1930s design.
Built between 1930 and 1934 by the architect Michel Polak, who just a couple of years earlier had completed the elegant Residence Palace in Brussels, Villa Empain is a magnificent example of Art Deco architecture. What is particularly striking is the simple symmetry of the architecture, combined with the luxury of the materials used, such as marble, polished granite and valuable species of wood.
The attention to detail in the restoration was commented on last year by the jury of the European Union’s Europa Nostra competition, which awarded Villa Empain one of its cultural heritage prizes. The jury referred to “the exemplary restoration of this emblematic Art Deco monument. No concessions were made in the choice of materials used for completion, nor for grafting or replacing components of the villa, even in the smallest details.”
But it’s the building’s luminosity that Hennebert finds most beautiful. “It was really designed as a house of light,” she says, “with large windows and the reflection of the house in the swimming pool” in the back garden. As was typical of the era, the villa took its name from its owner, Baron Louis Empain, whose family was famous for building the Paris metro system. Over the years, Villa Empain has served different functions. Early on it was a museum for contemporary decorative arts, during the Second World War it was occupied by the German army and later it became the home of the USSR embassy.
Today, it is the headquarters of the Boghossian Foundation and “a centre of art and dialogue between the cultures of the East and the West”. Since its opening to the public in 2010, Villa Empain has welcomed 150,000 visitors to its art exhibitions, concerts and conferences. “It has become a part of the cultural landscape,” according to Hennebert.
The Boghossian Foundation, established in 1992 by a family of Antwerp-based Lebanese jewellers of Armenian descent, was originally devoted to helping improve the living conditions of young people in Armenia and Lebanon. The Brussels project came about as one of the sons, Jean, fell in love with Villa Empain and realised it would work well as the headquarters for the foundation.
Inspired by Baron Empain’s original idea to dedicate the building to art, the Boghossian Foundation decided to host exhibitions there, too. Given the family’s immigrant background, an art centre focussing on the links between East and West seemed a natural choice.
The current exhibition, A Dream of Eternity: The Long Road of Oriental Arts, includes textiles, lacquers, miniatures, lace and jewellery displayed throughout the house. From time to time, items from the family’s collection of jewellery in Geneva, where Jean’s brother Albert is based, are included in the temporary displays.
Interesting though the exhibitions are, the house really steals the show. Be it the plain outer facade with its elegantly curved edges, the symmetrical view from the central atrium up to the wrought iron balustrades above or the vista at the back of the ground floor out over the swimming pool – everywhere you look, you see simplicity and luxury. How fortunate that the Boghossian Foundation came to its rescue.
Villa Empain - Franklin Rooseveltlaan 67, Brussels
EXPAT TIP
Marjolein Vilé, 39, loves starting her weekends with a Saturday morning cycle to Georges Brugmannplein, not far from her home in the Brussels commune of Elsene. There she can find everything she needs for the perfect start to her day: a good bakery, somewhere to buy a Dutch newspaper and a couple of places for a treat, be it a bouquet of flowers or something sweet to eat.
She discovered the bakery Le Rustique thanks to a recommendation from a friend. “It has a lovely, old-fashioned look and a great range of breads,” says Vilé, who moved to Brussels from Amsterdam seven years ago.
Next stop, Candide. “It’s a really beautiful bookstore, and it also sells newspapers, both Belgian and international,” says Vilé. If time allows, she likes to read her paper on the adjacent terrace of Gaudron with a fresh fruit juice. If time is pressing, she’s more likely to pick up a cake there before heading home to her partner and their young daughter.
And from time to time, she stops by the flower shop on the corner. “For a
Dutch girl, flowers in Brussels are expensive, but it’s a beautiful shop and
they make really nice bouquets there.” All in all, a wonderful way to start
the weekend.
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