Victor Bourgeois
Encyclopedia
Victor Bourgeois was a Belgian architect and urban planner, considered the greatest Belgian modernist architect.

Bourgeois was born at Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...

 and studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
The Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels is an art school, founded in 1711.The faculty and alumni of ARBA include some of the most famous names in Belgian painting, sculpture, and architecture: James Ensor, Rene Magritte, and Paul Delvaux...

 in Brussels from 1914 through 1918, and was mentored by Henry van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...

. Together with his brother Pierre Bourgeois, he founded several magazines, including 7 Arts (1922-1928).

In 1927 Bourgeois became the only Belgian invited to design a house for the Weissenhof Estate
Weissenhof Estate
The Weissenhof Estate is a housing estate built for exhibition in Stuttgart in 1927...

 exhibition in Stuttgart, and the following year Bourgeois was a delegate to the first meeting of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
The Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne – CIAM was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged around the world by the most prominent architects of the time, with the objective of spreading the principles of the Modern...

 and a founding member of that organization.

Cité Moderne

Bourgeois's first important architectural work was a group of houses in the Rue du Cubisme in the Koekelberg district of Brussels, showing the direct influence of the Dutch modernists. Built between 1922 and 1925 for a cooperative society for social housing, the Cité Moderne included 275 units. Each of them are oriented towards the sun, with a private garden, and were designed for low-cost construction with the use of reinforced concrete, an experimental technique at the time.

The building style of the houses and small apartment houses was strictly unadorned, white with colored trim, with right angles and flat roofs, an early example of the modernist style. The entire district was planned by urban planner and landscape architect Louis Van der Swaelmen, intended to promote coexistence and solidarity between people, as well as provide for their safety. The names attributed to the streets and squares highlight these intentions: Foundation Street, Stewardship Street, Evolution Street, and Initiative Place.
The project earned Bourgeois the Grand Prize at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes
Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes
The International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts was a World's fair held in Paris, France, from April to October 1925. The term "Art Deco" was derived by shortening the words Arts Décoratifs, in the title of this exposition, but not until the late 1960s by British art critic...

 in 1925 and brought him international attention. Today it is said to be in poor condition and awaiting proper renovation.

Works

  • Apartment building, Rue du Cubisme, Koekelberg
    Koekelberg
    Koekelberg is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. On January 1, 2006 the municipality had a total population of 18,157...

    , 1922
  • Cité Moderne, at Sint-Agatha-Berchem
    Sint-Agatha-Berchem
    Sint-Agatha-Berchem or Berchem-Sainte-Agathe is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.The municipality had a total population of 20,078 on 1 January 2006...

    , 1922-1925
  • Housing entry for the Weissenhof Estate
    Weissenhof Estate
    The Weissenhof Estate is a housing estate built for exhibition in Stuttgart in 1927...

    , Stuttgart, 1927
  • House and studio for the sculptor Oscar Jespers, Brussels, 1928
  • Apartment buildings in Brussels, 1935
  • Grand Palace, Leopold II Restaurant and Soprocol Pavilion, Brussels International Exposition, 1935
  • Villa Le Jeannerie, Sint-Genesius-Rode
    Sint-Genesius-Rode
    Sint-Genesius-Rode is a municipality located in Flanders, one of three regions of Belgium, in the province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the town of Sint-Genesius-Rode only. On January 1, 2008, the town had a total population of 18,021...

    , 1936
  • House, Avenue de l'Uruguay 5, 1938
  • Belgian Pavilion
    Belgian Building
    The Belgian Friendship Building or Belgian Pavilion is the former exhibition building for Belgium from the 1939/1940 World's Fair in New York City. It now serves as Barco-Stevens Hall on the campus of Virginia Union University, in Richmond, Virginia.It was designed by Belgian architects Victor...

     at the New York World's Fair
    1939 New York World's Fair
    The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...

    , 1939, with Henry van de Velde
    Henry van de Velde
    Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...

     and Léon Stynen
  • Office des Chèques Postaux, Brussels, 1941
  • Town Hall, Ostend, 1954
  • Town Hall, Nivelles, 1954
  • buildings at the Expo '58
    Expo '58
    Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World’s Fair, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling or Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958...

    , Brussels, 1958
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