#modernity2025 #artdeco2025
As the new year dawns, the curtain is slowly falling on the Art Deco centenary celebrations, with no fewer than five exhibitions dedicated to Brussels artists, fashion, Jean Delhaye, weaving and Art Deco & Art Nouveau, open until February and March.
Supported by Urban, visit.brussels and their partners, the Art Deco Brussels 2025 programme has revealed the full richness this movement has brought to the capital. With more than 650.000 visitors, this year's event earned Urban a nomination for the visit.brussels Awards. So, if you enjoyed it, please vote before 12 February!
This penultimate Art Deco focus examines the theme of housing and, more specifically, its quintessential modern form: the apartment! These single-storey dwellings, now functional and fully equipped, are housed within buildings that are sometimes iconic and whose silhouettes continue to define the Brussels skyline today.
High-rise living
In the 1920s, a property boom swept through Brussels. New districts sprang up, filled with single-family homes and multi-unit buildings. The latter had the advantage of solving two problems caused by the First World War: the lack of materials and the housing shortage.
However, the Brussels bourgeoisie remained very fond of their individual houses, and collective housing initially met with only limited success. Most of the apartment buildings constructed at the time were luxury complexes reserved for the wealthiest residents. A prime example is the Résidence Palace, designed in 1922 by architect Michel Polak. This prestigious complex was a world unto itself, with 180 apartments, garages, shops, a theatre and even a swimming pool!
After the crisis of 1929, construction resumed with greater intensity, and architects and property developers began to specialise in designing apartment buildings that were now intended for all sections of the population. Apartment living appealed to the middle class, who were attracted by its modern comforts, communal facilities and the economic advantage of cost sharing.
Apartments and Art Deco
With its taste for geometry and noble materials, Art Deco was in its element in apartment buildings. It enhanced their façades with stylised bas-reliefs and defined their silhouette with stepped terraces and other recessed features. Some buildings adopted the aerodynamic lines of Streamline Moderne, while others featured a brick expressionism inspired by the Amsterdam School. Inside, luxurious entrance halls were adorned with marble, wood panelling, bevelled mirrors and chrome metal. One of the gems of the genre is the Palais de la Folle Chanson, designed in 1928 by architect Antoine Courtens.
The American influence is palpable in many projects. Developer Lucien Kaisin and architect Marcel Peeters, for example, were behind two imposing complexes whose stepped rooflines were inspired by New York skyscrapers: Les Pavillons français (1930-1934) on Rue du Noyer in Schaerbeek and Résidence de La Cambre (1937), whose 18 storeys tower over Boulevard Général Jacques.
Be modern, live horizontally!
Comfort, well-being, air and light became the watchwords in apartments. Architects studied the most rational layouts for the different rooms, considering sunlight and ensuring that day rooms and night rooms were separate. Advertising campaigns extolled the modern comforts of both luxury and budget apartments: single-storey layout, central heating, gas, electricity, hot and cold running water, fitted kitchen, hygienic bathroom, built-in cupboards, rubbish chutes, intercom system, etc. Advertising brochures also drew gentlemen's attention to an additional advantage: "thanks to the apartment, their wives save time and effort", thus preserving "their health and beauty".
The lift: a hidden heritage
The lift occupied a prominent place among the technical innovations that contributed to the rise of apartment living. Although its use became widespread in the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the invention of the safety brake by entrepreneur Otis, it continued to be improved. Between the wars, lifts, like the halls that house them, helped to reflect the building's status and therefore that of its residents. Particular care was taken with the lift shaft and cabin, which were adorned with ornate ironwork, panelling, mirrors and illuminated buttons.
Designed by Urban and Homegrade, the inventory of historic lifts in the Brussels Region has listed hundreds of lifts since 2003, including nearly 370 dating back to the interwar period.
Art Deco Brussels 2025 programme
Throughout the year, the Art Deco Brussels 2025 programme has taken the public on a journey to discover the different facets of this movement through exhibitions, events, publications and guided tours.
EXHIBITIONS • Last opportunity to discover five magnificent exhibitions!
At the start of 2026, five exhibitions are still on the programme and they are all worth a visit: Date a Master of Art Deco and A Century Woven in Art Deco, until 31 January and 28 February at Les Halles Saint-Géry, Fashion in the 1920s and 1930s, until 2 February at the Van Buuren Museum and Gardens, Jean Delhaye, architect and defender of Horta's work, until 29 March at the Atelier Brunswyck/Wathelet in Ganshoren, and Art Deco & Art Nouveau: Convergence and Divergence, at LAB·AN x Hotel van Eetvelde, also until March.
PUBLICATION • « L'Art Déco à Bruxelles - Demeures intemporelles »
In October 2025, Éditions Racine published a beautiful book on Art Deco residences in Brussels, written by Cécile Dubois and featuring photographs by Sophie Voituron. This is a unique opportunity to step inside private and public interiors emblematic of this movement and to learn about their residents, past and present, as well as the history of their preservation.
Also interesting to know
GUIDED TOURS • The BANAD ticket office opens on 3 February at 2pm!
In 2026, the Brussels Art Nouveau Art Deco Festival (BANAD) will celebrate its tenth anniversary. A must-see spring event, the Brussels festival will take you from 14 to 29 March on a journey to (re)discover some sixty Art Nouveau and Art Deco sites that are usually closed to the public. This year's programme includes several Art Deco villas and the legendary Palais de la Folle Chanson. Organised as part of BANAD, the Heritage Restorers’ Fair will take place on 29 March. Come and see Urban, who will be presenting its publications dedicated to Brussels' heritage.
Inventory: an overview of Art Deco housing in Brussels
Created by Urban, the extensive database of the Architectural Heritage Inventory lists tens of thousands of buildings in Brussels. They include almost 450 Art Deco apartment buildings. Some are prominent structures, while others are less well known, but they are all valuable examples of a certain modern concept of housing.
Publication: “Apartment buildings from the interwar period”
The 43rd issue of the Bruxelles, Ville d'Art et d'Histoire series, published by Urban, is devoted to the history of apartment buildings from the 1920s and 1930s. This enjoyable and richly illustrated book, published in 2006, is available in print and online in digital format.
