WHAT Architect WHERE Notes Zone 1: City Center- Bruxelles-Ville Galerie Ravenstein Was Built in 1958 As a Shopping Center
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WHAT Architect WHERE Notes Zone 1: City Center- Bruxelles-Ville Galerie Ravenstein was built in 1958 as a shopping center. Its original aim was to give a new boost to the neighbourhood, which was heavily affected by the destructive works for the Nord-Midi (north-south) junction. Designed as a shopping gallery which could house 81 shops, it was built between 1954 and 1958 in the International style, according to Alexis and Philippe plans by the architects Alexis and Philippe Dumont, who designed the *** Galerie Ravenstein Rue Ravenstein 18 Dumont nearby building which houses Shell’s offices. From rue Ravenstein, a huge porch gives access to a staircase under a cupola which compensates for the ten-metre height difference that exists between the two streets. When it opened, it accommodated over 80 shops. The innovative skylight and stellar artwork incorporated into the design of the arcade are striking features to be admired. A cinema documentation centre has recently opened with thousands of books, magazines and more than a million photographs, which can be perused in the reading room. Forty displays trace the early days of Victor Horta cinema i.e. the main inventions that led to the discovery of *** CINEMATIC and Robbrecht & Rue Baron Horta 9 cinematography by the Lumière brothers. For the renovation and Daem (renovation) refurbishment of the Film Museum, located in the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, the architects used new and old means. The light and the visual angles in Victor Horta's building were used to let Cinematek connect with the rest of the structure. Mon-Sun (9.30am-5pm) Library The Centre for Fine Arts, designed and built by Victor Horta between 1919 and 1928, is known as The Paleis voor Schone Kunsten or Palais des Beaux-Arts and often referred to as "Bozar" (a homophone of "Beaux-arts"). The building was part of his urban development project for the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg ("Mount of the Arts"). On the rue **** BOZAR Victor Horta Rue Ravenstein 23 Royale/Koningsstraat, higher up the hill, the Centre was not permitted to spoil the king’s view of the lower town. The height of the building was therefore strictly limited and the majority of the "Palace" was built underground. Admission depends on exhibition. Tue-Fri (10am-6pm), Sun (10am-6pm) This 1899 former department store is an art-nouveau showpiece with a black facade with wrought iron and arched windows. The building contains the groundbreaking music museum , a celebration of music in all its forms, as well as a repository for more than 2000 historic instruments. Rue Montagne de la ***** Old England Building Paul Saintenoy The emphasis is very much on listening, with auditory experiences around Cour 2 every corner, from shepherds’ bagpipes to Chinese carillons to harpsichords. Don’t miss the rooftop café for a superb city panorama. General admission €8, €6 students. Tue-Sat (9.30am-5pm), Sat-Sun (10am-5pm) Palais de Bruxelles was built in 1782 as the official palace of the King and Queen of the Belgians. However it is not used as a royal residence, as the king and his family live in the Royal Palace of Laeken. In the palace an important part of the royal collection is found. This consists Royal Palace of **** Barnabé Guimard Rue Brederode 16 of mainly state portraits and important furniture of Napoleon, Leopold Brussels I, King Louis Philippe and Leopold II. Silverware, porcelain and fine crystal is kept in the cellars used during state banquets and formal occasions at court. Queen Paola added modern art in some of the state rooms. FREE admission. Tue-Sun (10.30am-4.30pm) Saint Jacques-sur- Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg was built in 1780 as a neoclassical church. * Barnabé Guimard Borgendaalgang 1 Coudenberg It was designed to serve as the Church of the Abbey of Saint-Jacques on the Coudenberg and therefore has a deep extended choir with place for choir stalls for the monks. The building lost somewhat of its typical neoclassical temple-like appearance by the addition in the 19th-century of a bell tower. During the French Revolution, the abbey was suspended and the church was made into a Temple of Reason, and then later into a Temple of Law. The church was returned to Catholic control in 1802. The building lost somewhat of its typical neoclassical temple-like appearance by the addition in the 19th-century of a bell tower (after the design of Tilman-François Suys) and a coloured fresco by Jean Portaels on the pediment. Tue-Fri (12-6pm), Sat (1-6pm), Sun (8.30am-6pm) An audacious architectural proposition to the city offers a newfound visibility to the former “Palais des Congrès” by means of a poetic emblem embodied in the glass cube that forms the principal entry to SQUARE, Brussels Meeting Centre. Originally built in 1958 as the former Square – Brussels Palais des Congrès for the World's fair, in 2006 it got renovated. Square ***** A2RO Architects rue Mont des Arts Meeting Centre – Brussels Meeting Centre’s landmark is the three-story, 16-metre tall glass cube that forms the main entry to the premises. The cube has a treelike structure and the overall aesthetic is based on transparency and light. A terrace leads to the upper access situated on the Mont des Arts. Mon-Fri (8.30am-6.30pm) The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are a group of art museums in Brussels. The complex was built in 1803 as the Palais des Beaux- Arts funded by King Leopold II. Balat was the king's principal architect, and this was one part of the king's vast building program for Belgium. There are six museums connected with the Royal Museums; two of them Royal Museums of Rue de la Régence are located in the main building – the Oldmasters Museum or Museum of **** Fine Arts of Alphonse Balat 3 Ancient Art, whose collections cover European art until 1750, and the Belgium Museum of Modern Art. The Magritte Museum, opened in 2009, and Fin- de-Siècle Museum, opened in 2013, are adjacent to the main building. The Royal Museum contains over 20,000 drawings, sculptures, and paintings, which date from the early 15th century to the present. General admission €15, €5 students (<25 yo). FREE any visitor first Wednesday of each month from 13:00 onwards. Tue-Sat (10am-5pm), Sun (11am-5pm) The Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon was originally built in 1265 as a modest chapel. Legend is that the chapel became famous after a local devout woman had a vision in which the Virgin Mary instructed her to steal the miraculous statue of ‘Onze-Lieve-Vrouw op ‘t Stocxken’ (Our Lady on the little stick) in Antwerp, bring it to Brussels and place it in the chapel. The exact date of commencement of the construction of the church that replaced the chapel is not known with certainty. It is generally believed that it was around the turn of the fifteenth Church of Our century. The sacrarium built behind the choir dates from 1549. The whole 38, Rue de la * Blessed Lady of the - construction process took about a century. At the end of the 16th Régence Salon century, the church was sacked by Calvinists and the statue of the Virgin, which Beatrijs Soetkens had brought, was destroyed. In the 17th century, the prominent family of Thurn und Taxis, whose residence was located almost opposite the southern entrance of the church, had two chapels built inside it: the Chapel of St. Ursula (1651–1676), situated north of the choir, started by the sculptor-architect Lucas Faydherbe from Mechelen and completed by Vincent Anthony; and the Chapel of Saint Marcouf (1690), situated south of the choir. Mon-Fri (9am-6pm), Sat-Sun (10am-6pm) Egmont Palace was built in 1560 as a a large mansion for Françoise of Luxembourg, the widow of Jean, Count of Egmont and the mother of the famous Count Lamoral of Egmont, a military commander. Apart from some Rue aux Laines pillars, that can be seen at the back of the Egmont Gardens - near an Giovanni Niccolò (Wolstraat) and the ** Egmont Palace old ice-house, nothing remains of this building, which was torn down in Servandoni Petit Sablon 1892. The venue hosted the fencing events for the 1920 Summer Olympics Square in the garden. After World War I, the German Arenberg family was forced to sell the building to the City of Brussels. Today the palace is used by the government as a conference center. W16 was built in 2009 as an office building. This project entails renovating the building completely as well as the ‘Bâtiment de l’Horloge’ at the rear. The original building was designed in 1958 by architect Hugo Van Kuyck for the SNCI. The premises are situated in the upper class Boulevard de trade quarter of the ‘avenue Waterloo’. This district lies besides the * W16 Conix Architects Waterloo 16 Brussels small ring road and contains old town parts. The ring road is a real car river, surrounded by commercial enterprises and hotels which mark it as a mixed neighbourhood. The new façade is envisaged for the building, a commercial section on the ground floor and offices on the upper floors. Avenue de la Le Toison d'Or is a hybridisation of a traditional building-block typology **** Le Toison d'Or UN Studio Toison d'Or 8 and a mixed-use development with a retail podium completed in 2016. Le Toison d'Or contains 72 apartments, retail space, parking spaces and an elevated city garden. In order to avoid the monolithic qualities common to block structures, the façade of Le Toison d’Or is broken up by means of variations in texture, depth and the repeating rhythm of a series of curved vertical frames.