Brussels’ Art Deco treasures showcased at the BANAD Festival from 15 to 30 March

The 9th edition of the Brussels Art Nouveau Art Deco Festival (BANAD) opens its doors to exceptional heritage venues in the capital over three weekends from 15 to 30 March.

Its focus on Art Deco honours the centenary of the architecture and style movement that heralded the age of modernism around the world. Some 60% of the festival’s programme this year is devoted to Art Deco, while 25% is filled with Art Nouveau activities and 15% is devoted to the Modernism style.

The programme of visits is a rare opportunity to see inside 60 of Brussels’ architectural treasures. They range from mansions and private homes to office and apartment buildings, as well as public buildings, including places of worship, museums, town halls, and artists' studios.

Although visits over the next two weekends are almost sold out, places remain for the final weekend, in addition to walking and cycling tours and other activities, says organiser Explore.Brussels. These include conferences, exhibitions, roundtables, inclusive and family activities, a tasting tour and the popular Object Fair and Restorers & Experts Fair at School No. 13 in Schaerbeek on 29 and 30 March.

For Explore.Brussels the BANAD Festival is not only a project about the past, but is aimed at inspiring the city of today.

To help visitors participate in as many activities as possible, each weekend’s programme is dedicated to three different geographical zones in the Brussels-Capital Region.

Programme highlights

Among venues hosting visits for the first time are the Brunner Bank building in Rue de la Loi, the former Coppez Institute in Avenue de Tervuren, the studio home of painter Arthur Rogiers in Rue Charles Quint and a series of renovated private homes. Other new buildings on the programme are the Van Hoof House in Boulevard Lambermont and the former Régie des Télégraphes et Téléphones buildings in Rue des Palais.

On the Art Deco side, must-sees are the Résidence Palace, the Empain and Collart-Van Gobbelschroy villas, the Basilica in Koekelberg – the biggest Art Deco building in the world (pictured above) –and the van Buuren Museum and Gardens. Art Nouveau favourites are the Solvay, Tassel, and Max Hallet hotels, and the Maison Saint-Cyr. Fans of Modernism will heading to the Maisons Marit, Grégoire-Lagasse and Anciaux.

Art Deco Year 2025

After celebrating the 100th anniversary of Art Nouveau in 2023, it’s now the centenary of Art Deco that falls under the spotlight. The movement’s founding is generally attributed to the groundbreaking Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925.

The region aims for Art Deco Year 2025 to replicate the success of the previous edition that attracted almost 2million visitors from home and abroad. Brussels-Capital Region secretary of state for urban planning and heritage Ans Persoons said that although the city was rightly associated with the Art Nouveau style, its aim was to show that Art Deco was also key to its architectural richness.

If the movement was associated with the roaring twenties, it was also a period of economic crisis and the rise of extremism. “It’s important to see it with another eye. It was in this period that Art Deco took form.”

The Art Deco Year is curated by Paul Dujardin, in partnership with museums and cultural, scientific and artistic institutions. The former Bozar director underlined how Art Deco architecture was pioneering with its sustainable qualities. “Take Bozar that was built with revolutionary materials. Today, this building is still used on the society that we live.”

He also highlighted the contemporary aesthetics of the international movement and how a style that was made fashionable by the bourgeois then influenced public buildings.

BANAD Festival
15-30 March
Across the Brussels region

Photos: (main image) Maison Averbouch ©Explore Brussels/Endre Sebok; Ancien siege de la societe Electrorail ©Explore Brussels/Endre Sebok; Basilica Koekelberg ©J-P Remy/Visit.brussel; Villa Empain Boghossian Foundation ©J-P Remy/Visit.brussels; Brussels Central Station ©Eric Danhier/Visit.brussels