In Brussels in the '20's, fashions and the morals loosened up from the pre-war social norms. Art «déco» was the expression of a dynamic, young middle-class free from moral prejudice. The arts are on display, outspoken and the centre of conversation.
Architecture is generously associated with decorative arts and contemporary ideas and trends: airplanes, automobiles, luxury liners, travel, the wireless, new technologies, new materials; reinforced concrete was first used in 1958 but its acknowledgement in architecture dates from 1905 (garage Ponthieu-Automobiles by Auguste Perret in Paris).
At this point, Adrien Blomme was no longer a young architect and a young husband who had to prove himself to his father-in-law. He had an enviable position among his fellow artists, although he was not particularly involved in theoretical discussions. He happily admitted that he was "not a modernist of the first hour".
He was accepted in artistic circles and his friends included Anto Carte, Wolfers, Ossip Zadkine, Valentine Prax and Fritz Vandenberg.
The business world of his parents was not foreign to him, nor was he unknown in industry, since he was chosen by Baron Coppée to design the first "garden-city" in our country, with more than a thousand lodgings for the Winterslag coal miners.
Since his first constructions in 1905, Adrien Blomme found self-expression but was no slave to fashion, as shown by his own home, rue Américaine, on an angle lot where the staircase is clearly visible from the outside; a house with a stone gable rue Bucholtz "in the modern style category" with bow window and receded terrace; or the « cottage » in Uccle, used as a holiday home for his parents-in-law. The variety in his inspiration was drawn from the dialogue he systematically established with his clients, and his reputation as a builder was based on 20 years' experience of working with artists and highly skilled craftsmen.
He spent part of the war in England, where he was introduced to Parker and Unwin; from them he incorporated the theories and symbolism he would use in Winterslag. With his father, who operated tile and brick plants abroad, he travelled through Russia, Eastern Europe, Istanbul, Spain and Italy, and these trips influenced him in many ways.
Adrien Blomme was a passionately creative, sensitive, educated artist attentive to the aspirations of his clients. With him, there were no cellar-kitchens, no ladders to the attic, no dark and narrow hallways – all of the areas were made for comfortable living. His rich architectural semantics identified shapes with the personalities of those for whom the building was created.
1925-26: the Cogéni society foresaw a new trend in the art of living. It asked him for a concept for the Val de la Cambre with an arrangement of individual homes grouped according to the typology of a traditional village, and offered him a "lodgings in horizontal layers" project. At Parliament, Minister De Man had indeed just been propounding "life in apartments, which breaks down old selfishness, promotes more courteous contacts with neighbours and lightens tiresome daily housework".
He imagined the building that some people still envy today on the corner avenue Duray and rue de la Folle Chanson with white facades in a set of eye-catching massive shapes. Despite this novel idea, townhouses continued to be popular in Brussels.
Social life had indeed changed since the end of World War I – former manufacturers had become well-known industrialists. Their homes, formerly close to the factory, moved towards the districts off Avenue Louise and Avenue des Nations.
These industrialists were A. Blomme's potential clientele.
When Léon Wielemans, head of the Wielemans-Ceuppens brewery in Forest, bought a lot rue Defacqz where he wanted to build a house as a present to his wife, he asked A. Blomme to make this woman's dream come true.
L. Wielemans and A. Blomme had long been friends, free-thinkers, attached to liberal traditions, and they shared their enthusiasm for new aesthetics.
Yvonne Wielemans was fascinated with Spain; she and her husband took their architect to Grenada where he did his first drawings of their home-to-be. Few restrictions were placed on breakdown of the areas, but the focal point had to be a patio, which was a must. Together, they chose the azulejos and sent them home. Once again, the communication between client and builder came through.
The construction site rue Defacqz was difficult – strikes postponed it more than once. But the end result is impressive and the garden is delightful with its fountains, jets, gutters and cascades: a little corner of Andalusia in Brussels.
The clients felt no resentment towards their architect for the construction problems. On the contrary, Yvonne Wielemans was delighted, and so was Leon, who would entrust Adrien with the new wing of his brewery in Forest. In 1932, the papers reporting on the inauguration said "this is more than just a room – a monument has been constructed".
Adrien Blomme gave his own explanations in the magazine "Emulation": "The view from the base of the large, clear bay windows shows the people on the street, giving the entire construction a livelier feeling." The sight of the bright copper tanks, acting as a homage to the brewer's art, welds friendship and creates shared hopes and creative projects, particularly the tavern under the brewer's trademark, and the crucial Metropole Cinema, Adrien Blomme's masterpiece.
The early '30s were particularly fruitful for his work: in addition to the brewery and the Metropole Cinema, he built his own home and his offices avenue des Nations (now the office of the Rector and the President of the Free University of Brussels) and the Gosset tobacco plant in Molenbeek, purchased by the Society for the Regional Development of Brussels.
As the value of these buildings with "character" has mellowed, they have been included in Brussels' protected heritage.
The Commission for Monuments and Sites of the Brussels-Capital Region has adopted four facets of A. Blomme's work, without listing them in any given category. Four reflections of an architect at a given point in time on the art of living of the well-to-do middle class in Brussels. In the chronological order of their protection by the Commission they are:
» 1905: the architect's home rue Américaine
» 1938: the Gosset mansion, with its outbuildings and grounds (a first for the Commission)
» 1931: the Wielemans-Ceuppens brewery in Forest, paying homage to industry within the city, in an architectural style "at a crossroads of various trends: functionalism, Art Déco and a hint of the Academic style" as described by P. Puttemans.
» 1927: Mrs. Wielemans' Andalusian home.
The Commission recognizes that despite the picturesque look of the patio, the volumes and areas, the expression of the façades on the street and the garden, the overhangs with their series of arcades, the rough facing, the turrets, strutting and receding roofs and stone corbels are part of the architectural heritage and the expression of a certain modernism corresponding to the "roaring twenties" in Brussels.
I believe that Adrien Blomme's work must be seen in this light and retained for its generous contribution to the urban context.
Restoration of 1997
The decree protecting the building and grounds gives a brief description of the Wielemans mansion:
"Designed in 1925 by Adrien Blomme who drew his inspiration from the architecture in northern Spain… the living room was designed like a covered patio at the heart of the building, opening on to the broad staircase and the main rooms: sitting rooms, dining room, den, bedroom and garden. The garden too is reminiscent of the Andalusian model – water is omnipresent in fountains, pools, gutters and cascades."
The plans for the townhouse were drawn during a trip to Spain when Léon Wielemans, his wife and their architect visited the Alhambra palaces in Grenada.
The interior decoration draws its exceptional character from the lay-out of nearly 5,000 ceramic tiles: "azulejos, guardillas, tiras verdes… shipped from Spain to be mounted by the best Belgian specialist, the firm Baudoux (from Brussels). Remarkable woodwork and iron work complete the colourful setting".
The front door and hallway are narrow, a choice made voluntarily by architect Blomme so that, without any transition, visitors are unexpectedly confronted with the volumes and light of the large central hall of the house that stretches up two floors, opening onto the garden and the waterworks that give the charm of the building.
We were all captivated by that charm and worked enthusiastically to restore it successfully. The job was possible thanks to a well-knit team (contracting authority, engineers, builders, architects) and highly skilled craftsmen and workers. The Monuments and Sites Commission and department for the Brussels Region contributed their rigorous approach and advice, the curator from the Horta Museum, the Leuven Catholic University and the Leuven Monuments and Sites department, as well as other experts, all helped in their fields of competence. Mr. Eric Wielemans, who grew up in the house, was good enough to come to the site. Thanks to his advice and memories of the building, we recovered the former colour of the back facade and restored the back of the second floor to its original state.
The structure of the building was still sound, but a lot of restoration work was needed. The goal of the entire team was to restore it correctly and give it a new life as a cultural centre. Few visible changes were needed to obtain this result.
One absolute requirement was to guarantee constant temperature and humidity to ensure that the works of art would not be damaged. A ventilation system was created using all the "hidden" possibilities of the house. To meet fire department regulations, the back staircase became an emergency exit and was suitably adapted.
Much of the restoration work was successfully entrusted to skilled craftsmen: gilding in silverleaf, parquet floors, the rough-coated facades, woodwork, glass and lead lighting fixtures, basements, pebble design in the garden, etc...
Thanks to the advice of outside experts and the perseverance of the company responsible for the painting and finishing work, fabrics were found that were the same as the original cloth. The tiles in the lobby of the groundfloor and the pools in the garden have been reproduced perfectly. The garden has been protected as part of our heritage, so the current plants have been preserved and new plants have been carefully chosen, on the suggestion of the Monuments and Sites department, to maintain the original Mediterranean spirit of the grounds. |
