Art Nouveau in Flanders

At the end of the twentieth century, Brussels, in spite of its prominence as the administrative nerve-centre of Europe, boasts little or no good recent architecture. There seems to be an utter lack of ambition to express its European dimension in culture and architecture. This situation is in marked contrast to the cultural climate at the end of last century, when the Art Nouveau movement played a pioneering role and turned Brussels into an international centre of innovation. It was a very brief blossoming, however, lasting only from 1893 to 1902. Since then Belgium has made no further fundamental contributions to European architecture. This article offers a survey of Art Nouveau building in Flanders, mainly in Brussels and Antwerp.