One hundred years ago, an abandoned abbey in Ixelles was transformed into one of the world’s great design schools.
Inspired by Germany’s Bauhaus, the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde returned from Weimar in 1927 to set up this progressive school in an old Cistercian abbey at the source of the Maelbeek River.
Van de Velde recruited some of the city’s best modern architects to teach in the dilapidated abbey infirmary, including Huib Hoste, Antoine Pompe and Albert Van Huffel. In the 1950s, the school was run by the Belgian modernist architect Léon Stynen.
Countless artists and designers have studied in this exceptional school, including the fashion designer Anthony Vaccarello, the artist Ann Veronica Janssens and the illustrator Benoît Jacques.
The school currently has 18 departments teaching subjects such as ceramics, urban design, art restoration and bookbinding. Students come from all over the world to study in this ancient abbey rescued from ruin a century ago.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
