New space at the Horta Museum
The second design office of the Victor Horta Museum has just opened its doors. This new space is dedicated to the restoration campaigns that the building has undergone, particularly the most recent campaign between 1989 and 2014, carried out under the leadership of architect Barbara Van der Wee and museum curator Françoise Aubry. It was a very successful restoration that was also awarded the Europa Nostra prize in 2014.
Thanks to an animated film, drawings, decorative elements and colour palettes, the new room tells the story of the most emblematic restorations to the house/workshop of the father of Art Nouveau. It starts at the beginning of the restorations carried out by Horta himself, from the first building permit filed in 1898 to its transformations in 1906 and 1908. In 1961, when the municipality of Saint-Gilles acquired the building, a first restoration campaign was launched under the direction of Jean Delhaye, a student and defender of Horta's work. It must be said that Art Nouveau was no longer popular at the time, so much so that some buildings were razed to the ground, the most striking and most decried example being the destruction of the Maison du Peuple in 1965.
The latest restoration, completed in 2004, was the work of Belgian architect Barbara Van der Wee, who specialises in the restoration and rehabilitation of valuable historical sites. The Horta Museum is an international institution registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Visit the Horta Museum website for all the practical information you might need