During a stroll around Zinneke, in an abandoned factory space, we found an old building, laying on the floor dismembered.
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It looked like an exhibition of some sorts, and via the exhibition remainings we got to the story of this building...
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_Aubecq
Constructed by Victor Horta, one of the most famous Belgian architects, the Hotel Aubecq was a famous example of Art Nouveau scheduled for demolition in 1950.
Jean Delaye, a component of Horta's studio, struggled to save the facade of the building, which ended in his back yard until 1990.
The dismantled building was then moved to Namen, and a plan to rebuild the structure in Bruxelles started.
In 2010, a big project of digital reconstruction of the building started, including moving all the stones to Bruxelles for exhibiting them.
In 2011, though, the plan to reconstruct the facade was dropped, and with it the stones were left in the exhibition space.
That's where we found them..
- When ? From 1st July to 9th October 2011
- Web ? www.aubecq.be
- For the 150th anniversary of the birth of Victor Horta, Brussels-Capital Region has decided to showcase an outstanding, yet little known, piece of our heritage: the façade of the Hôtel Aubecq.
- In 1950, this mansion - an Art Nouveau masterpiece - became a casualty of the property speculation whirlwind that was sweeping through the changing city. Its furniture was scattered among private and public collections, while the façade was dismantled, split up and put into storage.One masterpiece - one exhibition - two sitesThe exhibition is in two parts, which complement one another but can also be visited separately: the warehouse, where the reassembled façade is laid out and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, where the furniture is displayed. The façade is accessible in the warehouse, where it has been pieced together again and laid out flat, like an enormous jigsaw. This is a unique opportunity for the general public to take a close look at a sculptural façade, to view its features from a new angle and examine details that are normally more than 10m overhead. It is also an opportunity to find out how a façade is made - how the stones are assembled, technically and aesthetically. A small bridge, like an observation post, will enable visitors to look down on the structure from above. At the request of his client, Victor Horta himself designed much of the furniture for the house. When the building was sold the various pieces were dispersed, and they are now housed in different private and public collections. Now that some of this furniture has been brought together again, alongside plans from the archives, we can have a good idea of what this building was really like. Some two dozen items of furniture will be put on public display in the Boel and Berheim Rooms at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
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Links and Materials:
http://www.aubecq.be/
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_Aubecq
http://hotel-aubecq.be/remontage.html
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Community:Science/Architecture/DigitalSurveying/HotelAubecq
http://www.hotel-aubecq.be/downloads/article_releve_hotel_Aubecq.pdf