Gentse Bijdragen tot de Interieurgeschiedenis

Boedelstaten als sleutel voor de reconstructie van historische plattegronden

poj@peeters-leuven.be — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:22:21 GMT

The Hotel d�Hane Steenhuyse is a large mansion in Ghent with a long architectural history. It consists of a amalgamation of a number of houses in the Veldstraat. Jonhkeer Jean Baptiste d�Hane bought a townhouse in 1698 which forms the nucleus of today�s much large building. He renovated it prior to 1705. His son Emmanuel Ignace and grandson Pierre Emmanuel each renovated in turn to create the mansion that today has remained largely intact. A thorough study of 18th-century inventories and the architectural information has made it possible to reconstruct the floor plans of the smaller mansion from the first half of the 18th century. The 1705 inventories of the household effects and the paintings were significant and decisive in this study. They were compiled after the death of Marie Claire Mantels, the wife of J.B. d�Hane, and showed clearly that this aristocratic family wished to have done with the disturbance of the old central kitchen by building a new kitchen located further away. Their ground floor consisted of a dining room, various salons, a large reception room, a comptoir and a stairwell with vestibule. On the first floor there was a library, various apartments and bedrooms for the children. The reconstructed inventories show that after the death in 1726 of Leopold Joseph, the eldest son who succeeded his now deceased father Jean Baptist as owner and inhabitant of the mansion, the building changed little from its 1705 condition. A third inventory, compiled in 1736 after the death of Jeanne Therese d�Heyne, wife of Emmanuel Ignace d�Hane, describes a arrangement of rooms similar to that of 1705, although the rooms built in the new section are barely mentioned in the inventory. This may be because the renovation work was already underway. Extensive renovations were carried out around 1768 by Emmanuel Ignace and, after his death in 1771, by his son Pierre Emmanuel. This resulted in the present floor plan of the mansion.

De spektakelzaal van de Koninklijke Muntschouwburg in Brussel en het gebruik van carton-pierre

poj@peeters-leuven.be — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:21:08 GMT

This article describes the restoration of the performance hall of the Brussels Royal Monnaie Theatre. The project was directed by the Restoration Department of the Belgian Federal Buildings Agency. Since the theatre is closed during summer holidays, the work had to be divided into five annual campaigns. In 2003 the two front loges were restored, in 2004 the proscenium arch, in 2005 the two lower and in 2006 the two upper balconies. In 2007 the restoration of the entablature and the pendentives of the cupola were carried out. For the restoration, use was made of the original 19th-century technique of carton-pierre for the sculptural ornaments as well as the gilding technique of dorure � l�effet or or r�hauss�. The application of these techniques demanded considerable historical and practical research but turned out to guarantee the highest artistic quality of the restored elements. This article pays special attention to the technique of carton-pierre, describing its historical background and composition. Historical research demonstrated that it was impossible to reconstruct the hall in its original state. A consolidation of the actual situation was also not an option since many ornaments were considerably damaged and because of the insufficient quality of the finishing of many elements. It was therefore decided to partly uncover and reconstruct underlying historical layers in order to restore to the hall its lost magnificent appearance.

�'t Huis de Passer genaamd�

poj@peeters-leuven.be — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:20:34 GMT

Jacob Gustaaf Semey was born in Ghent on 30 March 1864 into an affluent bourgeois/merchant milieu. The architect is considered one of the most typical examples of the Ghent eclecticism. In Semey�s designs, the ornamentation drawn from the neo-Flemish Renaissance is specifically given prominence, as the neo-style had become symbolic of the growing power of the Dutch-speaking bourgeoisie. His activities as an architect may be situated within the extensive urban renovation then taking place throughout Belgium. Semey became an important speculator in Ghent, successfully bringing to fruition large-scale architectural ensembles in collaboration with insurance firms. In 1907, Semey moved from Villa Jan vader en Jan zoon Van Rijswijck on the Vlaamsekaai to �t Huis de Passer genaamd in the Wolfstraat. The house was built in 1906-1908 as one of the last realisations of his ambitious speculative enterprise in central Ghent. He lived and worked in the Wolfstraat until 1918, when as a committed activist he was forced to flee to the Netherlands, after which the house was plundered during a retaliatory action. The fa�ade structure of �t Huis de Passer genaamd accorded with the conventions of the bourgeois house at the time: it is a terraced house with wide window bays and narrow door bays, with four storeys and a pseudo-mansard roof. With its expensive parament materials and the exuberant, polychrome and politically-tinted ornamentation, the fa�ade clearly expressed its owner�s status. A fairly complete image can be sketched of the interior of �t Huis de Passer genaamd. The interior decoration has been preserved relatively intact, including the fixed elements of furnishings and ornamentation. In addition, the inventory compiled in 1942 in connection with a claim for damages formed a unique source of information on the function, decoration and furnishing of all the rooms in the house. The ground-floor plan is a more extensive version of that found in the classic, conventional 19th-century bourgeois house: a succession of three rooms flanked by a hall to the right. The disposition of the rooms is repeated on the upper floors. Veranda�s, a typical bourgeois status symbol, are situated on each floor. The most striking element of the bourgeois city house at the time, the basement, is, however, absent in this house. In this respect the house represents a mild attempt by Semey to break free from the standard 19th-century interior layouts. The furnishing may be described as fairly conventional yet luxurious and comfortable. A fixed style is used for each room, while the overall look is determined by the use of materials and technique prevalent at the time, including cement tiles and imitation marble or wood. The artistic climate in which the architect lived was expressed in the many works of art present in the house. The terracotta reliefs by Domien Van den Bossche give the house a personal and unique accent.

Modehuis Roeis

poj@peeters-leuven.be — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:19:45 GMT

The Fashion House Roeis existed from 1911 to 1961 in Antwerp, under the direction of Alice Roeis. The Roeis family donated a great many garments, ornaments and other elements to the Antwerp Fashion Museum. The objects from the interwar years included in this collection are studied in more detail, as this is an interesting and multifarious period both for fashion in general and for the Fashion House Roeis in particular. Alice Roeis usually bought models in paper or toile at the Paris fashion shows. She also ordered her material from Parisian firms or their Brussels branches. Despite the fact that Alice Roeis copied existing designs, she was at the time a leading figure on the Antwerp fashion scene. Her fashion house had the same hierarchy and working style as the top Paris fashion houses. Her exclusive clientele consisted of prominent women from a wide area, to whom she advertised purely by word of mouth. In the depot of the ModeMuseum, there are, among other things, a number of remarkable Charleston dresses, Egyptian blouses, party dresses of the 1930s, more domestic garments and children�s dresses. In addition, many belts, synthetic buckles, ornaments and material such as cloths, lace and embroidery are also preserved in the depot of the museum. A study of this visual wealth of information leads to the following conclusion: Mrs Roeis was a creator of high fashion in the French style. She picked up all manner of trends, including Egyptomania, material with busy floral motifs and back draping. However, she never went to extremes, shunning, for example, very short skirts or overly bare backs. She made use of stylish elements long after they had been created. Characteristics typical of Roeis� fashion house and that made a comeback in both the 1920s and 1930s included V-shaped or triangular ornamentation, which could be created by seams, folds or beading, on the one hand, or furrows, on the other. Old family photos were a source of extra information, particularly concerning the use of lace, fur and floral prints, the irregular hems of the 1920s and the satins of the 1930s. Some photos show garments now preserved in the depot of the ModeMuseum, including a long suite dress and a red party dress. The creations of Modehuis Roeis were thus popular, fashionable and stylish, despite the fact that they were not the house�s own creations. The term �haute couture� certainly applied to a fashion house such as that run by Mrs Roeis.

�De schoonheid van het materiaal�

poj@peeters-leuven.be — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:19:00 GMT

During the First World War, the production in the ceramics industry came to a standstill because of the shortage of raw materials and fuel. The machines were quickly restarted from the end of 1918. The reconstruction campaign in the �devasted districts� called for a huge amount of building materials over a short period of time. The considerable demographic growth in the 1920-1930 period, with a rising demand for dwellings, put added pressure on the construction industry. Tile manufacturers thus at first had practically no time to undertake a thorough renewal of their tile decors. For the sake of convenience, they largely fell back on the available models, in both the historical and art nouveau styles. Also, the fact that reconstruction architecture was generally not innovative, strengthened this tendency. New stylistic trends -in particular art deco and modernismtogether with external factors such as rising labourcost and the financial crisis in the 1930s, led to changes. From around 1925 the amount of modern decors increased dramatically, and progressively fewer elaborate, decorated floor and wall tiles were used. Increasingly, there was a transition to floors and dados with a mosaic of plain tiles, often in bright, primary colours. There was also frequent use of tiles with special �artistic� glazes. The decorated tiles and the fairly large-scale tile panels did remain on the market but had a much smaller share of the total production and were, moreover, usually based on patterns made by not unimportant cubist, constructivist or expressionist painters. Very typical of these new tendencies in the use of tiles can be seen in a brochure issued by Gilliot Hemiksem, showing many examples of tiled interiors. Further splendid examples include the fully tiled pavilions of the Koninklijke Sphinx at the 1930 world�s fair in Antwerp, on a design by Jean Eggericx, and the pavilion by Gilliot Hemiksem, five years later, at the Brusssels world�s fair, on a design by Joseph Roelants. Celebrated examples from 1938 were also the so-called Villas en C�ramique Jaqueline and Yvette in Knokke Duinbergen, built by the architect Florimond Vervalcke for the industrialist Raoul Amand from Baudour. Their interiors, completely tiled by C�rabel, are highly imaginative. Another important innovation in the application of ceramics in inter-war architecture was the use of so-called architectural ceramics. Here the decoration was not based on flat ornamentation but rather the accent was on the sculptural possibilities of the material. This form of decoration gained considerable attention in Belgium mainly through Helman Ceramic and Roger Gu�rin. By examining commercial catalogues, and articles or photographs in architectural periodicals, as well as celebrated realizations at world�s fairs, this evolution can be followed in some detail. Such an examination reveals that floor and wall tiles had to compete fiercely with other materials that were much easier to use. In Belgium, for instance, these were amongst others the well-known Eternit sheets, the so-called Marbrite and Marmorite, the all-pervasive linoleum (still much in use), and products such as Balatum, cardboard or even enamelled steel sheets. Tile manufacturers attempted to maintain their market share by emphasizing the durability and the beauty of their material.

Kerkinterieurs in het interbellum in Brussel

poj@peeters-leuven.be — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:26:50 GMT

Ecclesiastical architecture of the inter-war period shows a great diversity of formal language and use of materials. In order to get a sense of religious architecture and how it represented Catholic thinking on the Church, the parish and church buildings, it is important to recognise the diversity in the production of architecture. With the exception of what is now the �canon� of Brussels �Art-D�co� churches, the interwar-churches in Belgium are barely known. In a master�s thesis, �Architectural representation of Catholicism: inter-war churches in the Brussels Capital District�, 29 buildings in sixteen Brussels municipalities are studied. These are all parish churches that were built in the period in question according to contemporary designs. The interiors of the churches in question are very different. A small group have a historicised character, and several interiors exhibit Art-D�co influences, while the majority have interiors in a style which at the time had no generally recognised name. Characterised by a contemporary interpretation of the �traditional� Gothic and Romanesque formal alphabet, yet clearly set in opposition to the 19th-century �neo-movement�, this architecture is known as Modern Gothic and Modern Romanesque. Both styles enjoyed both national and international success, as they offered the possibility for �renewal through tradition�. This statement was highly prized in liturgical circles and the associated Liturgical Movement. Nonetheless, the demand for new church architecture in the inter-war period was repeatedly reformulated. The search for �renewal through tradition� translated itself not only into a huge range of styles; subtle changes to floor plans, the call for a rearrangement of church furnishing and discussions concerning stained-glass windows and statues were also ongoing. In the artistic practice, however, the sluggish economy slowed down the production of both church furnishing and of windows and statuary. A (moderately) modern formal language was promoted by such organisations as Les Ateliers d�Art de Maredsous and La Croix Latine. In Brussels parish churches, there are, however, few examples of total-concepts. The furnishings tend to be simple and even traditional. There is little evidence of stained glass and new statues, at least in the churches in the Brussels District. A number of beautiful pieces were, however, created in conjunction with the world�s fairs, and are now found distributed over a number of Brussels churches. It is also clear that despite their limited financial resources, parish congregations, in the wake of the Catholic Action, invested substantially in their church buildings. Because of the absence of a policy from the church government, the church materials here studied paint a picture of a �people who build�. Despite the explicit prohibition in the liturgical directives, rooms with social purposes were provided in a number of churches. The emphasis that came to be placed on the community of faith is characteristic of the evolution of the Church in the 20th century. The growing participation of the community in the parish partly explains the architectural choices between tradition and renewal, between originality and recognisability.

�Alle schrijnwerkers van dit land zouden aan deze eischen niet kunnen voldoen�

poj@peeters-leuven.be — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:29:45 GMT

On 8 April 1933, Professor Henry van de Velde was officially commissioned to design the new library of the Rijksuniversiteit Ghent, together with buildings for the Higher Institute for Art History and Classical Studies (HIKO), and the Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Institute, the latter of which was quickly replaced by an Institute for Minerology and Geology. Only the library and the HIKO were actually built on the Blandijnberg � the highest point in the city � on the location of the De Vreesebeluik, once a model neighbourhood for workers. Van de Velde�s design for the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy was also never realised. Henry van de Velde designed a high-rise functioning as a book depot, 64 meters high, his �fourth� tower of Ghent, and a symbol of knowledge. The concrete construction was developed together with his colleagues Gustave Magnel and Jean-Norbert Cloquet. Van de Velde took great care with the belvedere, the highest storey, which was first conceived as a museum of books, but later became a sober reception room for important guests. He himself selected several large interior-decorating firms to carry out the work. Malcorps from Brussels did the interior: the finishing with black marble, ceruse oak and wenge, a plastered ceiling, a parquet floor, the metal radiator covers painted black. At the end of 1939, the interior was almost complete. During the Second World War, the tower was occupied by the German soldiers. They built a look-out at the top of the water reservoir. Later came an anti-aircraft post, which was blown up on the Germans� retreat, resulting in damage to the reservoir. The belved�re, only completed in 1950, gradually deteriorated because of the damage. The construction of the engine room for the new lift in 1967 destroyed the harmony of the space. In 1971, the belvedere underwent not a restoration but a �renovation�, during which Henry Van de Velde�s designs for the ceiling and the floor were not respected. This unfortunate intervention suffered rapid deterioration due to poor maintenance. Other parts of the complex were also poorly maintained, adapted and �renovated�. In 2003, under the impulse of PROJECT2, the urgent need for a complete restoration of the whole building complex was recognised. On 16 September 2005, the board of the university took the crucial decision to borrow 30 million euros for the restoration and renovation. Within a few years, the Boekentoren can once again become a symbol of the Ghent University.

De atelierwoning van Theo van Doesburg in Meudon-Val-Fleury

poj@peeters-leuven.be — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:33:35 GMT

The artist of the De Stijl movement, Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931), designed his studio-house in 1927-1930 in Meudon-Val-Fleury. He died shortly after the building�s completion. His wife Nelly van Moorsel (1899-1975) continued to live there until 1975. The article examines the application of the materials and the colours in relation to the architecture, based on a colour-study carried out in conjunction with the restoration of 2001-2003. The house presents a clear and sober concept of two cubes slid partly into one another, with several surfaces. On the street side is a cube with the dwelling and behind it the cube with the studio. The floor plans of the dwelling cube, showing the ground floor and one storey, each consist of a central hall with rooms on each side. The studio takes up the whole second cube. Movable walls and fixed furniture give the floor plans both flexibility and direction. Since 1981 the house has been the property of the Dutch state. The Het Van Doesburghuis foundation is responsible for its management and upkeep. Besides the day-to-day maintenance, two restorations have taken place, at the beginning of 1980 and 2000. The construction of the house is delicate due to the experimental building style and the poor execution. The objective of the work in de 1980s was to restore the house and make it inhabitable for a series of guests. A small renovation was carried out, during which a number of finishings were replaced. In the 2001-2003 restoration, an attempt was made to find a balance between van Doesburg�s intentions, the first construction, the use of the building as a dwelling by Nelly van Doesburg and the restoration history. Colour research, in the form of stratigraphic and laboratory research, formed an important addition tot the existing knowledge, and created the basis for the new painting work to take place. The colour scheme of the studio-house would appear to support the architecture: A double white cube with white surfaces, with accents in the three primary colours on the front side: the blue font door, the yellow garage door and the red door of the roof terrace. On the back side, the large glass surface of the studio window and the steel fence on the roof terrace are black. Inside, the walls are painted in various tints. Van Doesburg designed tile floors in compositions of white, grey, black and red, as well as floors in even yellow, red and grey. Colour accents are also present: the stained-glass skylight, the vertical and horizontal surfaces of the tables and (cupboard) doors in blue, yellow, grey and black. The steel windows are black and grey.