Description

This large bourgeois house is set on one of the most beautiful avenues in Brussels, where it is integrated into a string of remarkable buildings. The 13-m-wide house is located on a very long plot of land that opens onto the Rue Berkendael. The building is set back from Avenue Molière by a few metres, revealing a small garden enclosed by low walls and pillars of blue limestone and iron fences. On the ground floor, a large carriage entrance opens onto a passageway that leads to a large garden and, sideways, to the vestibule of the building. Parallel to this passageway, the house has two longitudinal bays. The first is a service wing with a grand staircase and service rooms including a second staircase. To its left are three large rooms in a row.

The façade of the building is entirely built in blue and light stone. The left-hand bay has a loggia on the ground floor, covered by a terrace on the upper floor. The centre of the composition features two pilasters that frame a dormer window. The second floor has a mansard roof with slates and two pedimented dormers. In 1922, the house was transformed into an apartment building with the addition of two floors; the loggia was altered then as well.

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Originally published in: Gérald Ledent, Alessandro Porotto, Brussels Housing. Atlas of Residential Building Types, Birkhäuser, 2023.