Maison du Peuple (Brussels)

The ( French) or (Dutch), both literally the "House of the People", was a public building located on the /, in the Sablon/Zavel district of Brussels, Belgium. It was one of the most influential Art Nouveau buildings in Belgium and one of the most notable designs by the architect Victor Horta. Commissioned by the Belgian Workers' Party (POB/BWP), it was constructed between 1896 and 1899, and opened on 2 April 1899.

The building was demolished in 1965, and a skyscraper, the Blaton Tower, was built on its site. Its demolition has been regarded as an "architectural crime" and an example of Brusselisation.

Building

Victor Horta was commissioned by the Belgian Workers' Party (POB/BWP) to build a grandiose people's house on the /, in the Sablon/Zavel district of Brussels. He was assisted in this project by Richard Pringiers, who was to become the appointed architect of the party.

In spite of a rather restrictive and irregular plot, along a circular square and on a slope, Horta succeeded in constructing a four-storey building with maximum functionality. It provided space for all kinds of socio-economic facilities; the ground floor was made of shops and a café restaurant; the first floor included the party's offices and meeting rooms, as well as a library; the second and third floors welcomed various multi-purpose rooms; the fourth floor was home to a large auditorium and concert hall seating over 2,000 people.

Unlike Horta's houses, the decoration was kept to a minimum, as it was a purely functional building, mainly constructed in white cast iron (more than ) with curtain walls. Fifteen craftsmen worked for eighteen months on the ironwork. The only strikingly recognisable Art Nouveau features of the facade were the balustrades with curling lines, as well as a slight curving of the steel pillars supporting the roof. On the roof, the building was decorated with signs bearing the names of people who contributed to the socialist cause, such as Karl Marx and Leon Blum. As with Horta's houses, however, the building was designed to make maximum use of light, with large skylights over the main meeting room. To make this construction possible, Horta drew no less than of plans.

The building was completed in 1899 and was inaugurated in the presence of the French socialist leader Jean Jaurès. Because of the experimental combination of brick, glass and steel, it was considered as a masterwork of modern architecture.

File:Maison du Peuple of the P.O.B. (Belgian Workers Party) (destroyed, Brussels), exterior 1.jpg, View from the exterior
File:Maison du Peuple of the P.O.B. (Belgian Workers Party) (destroyed, Brussels) (detail).jpg, Entrance
File:Maison du Peuple of the P.O.B. (Belgian Workers Party) (destroyed, Brussels), theatre hall.jpg, Theatre and Meeting Hall
File:Maison du Peuple of the P.O.B. (Belgian Workers Party) (destroyed, Brussels), dining hall.jpg, Restaurant

Demolition

The Maison du Peuple was demolished in 1965, despite an international protest movement of over 700 architects, in what has been regarded as an "architectural crime". The building was dismantled entirely with the idea of rebuilding it elsewhere. However, its components were scattered in vacant lots around Brussels, and it was never reconstructed. Later, structural parts of the building were used in the ''Horta Grand Café'' in Antwerp and some of the original pieces can still be found in Horta premetro station in Saint-Gilles.

The loss of the Maison du Peuple was part of the trend of Brusselisation, where many historic buildings were torn down and replaced by skyscrapers. The Maison du Peuple itself was replaced by a 26-floor office building, the Blaton Tower, built in the year immediately after the Maison du Peuple's demolition.

Virtual Reconstruction

Since 2014, a scientific team of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Horta Museum is virtually rebuilding parts of the Maison du Peuple: the entrance hall, the café, the staircase, the concert hall, the Matteoti Hall and the surroundings. The first results can be seen in the Horta Museum: a photorealistic 8-minute movie and a tablet app with navigable 360° renderings.

See also

* Vooruit, a similar building in Ghent, built for the city's co-operative movement
* Art Nouveau in Brussels
* History of Brussels
* Belgium in "the long nineteenth century"

References

Notes

External links

{{portal, Belgium

Historical images.

Headquarters of political parties
City of Brussels
Victor Horta buildings
Art Nouveau architecture in Brussels
Art Nouveau commercial buildings
Demolished buildings and structures in Belgium
Commercial buildings completed in 1899
1899 establishments in Belgium
Buildings and structures demolished in 1965