4.17.2020 | DIGS.NET 31
L E G E N D S | V I N C E N T V A N D U Y S E N
An Essentialist in Antwerp
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Architect Vincent Van Duysen adds another honest intervention to his repertoire of understated
designs with his tour to de force transformation of a 19th century convent into an urban hotel.
W R I T T E N B Y J E N N T H O R N T O N
I
n cobblestoned, culturally important Antwerp,
the August hotel takes its name from its roots
as an Augustinian convent but its design
cues from Vincent Van Duysen. With the Belgian
architect's commitment to materiality and pure
forms unambiguous, so is the result—an exquisite
capstone to decades in the upper echelon of
contemporary design.
August epitomizes the Van Duysen ideal: It
is a space of deep soul and no conceit. What
distinguishes the architect from his contemporaries,
however, is that Van Duysen is an intellectual, as
well, and approaches design from this place. "My
parents educated me across many different arts
as a child—architecture, painting, theatre—and
my father had incredibly intuitive artistic skills," he
says. "These were the primary influences for my
appreciation and understanding of beauty and,
from a young age, fostered a natural talent for
creativity." In his parents' circle was a professor
from the Sint-Lucas School of Architecture who
explained to Van Duysen that, as he explains it,
"the enduring quality of architecture was that it
covered so many aspects of all of the applied arts
I had been exposed to."
This self-professed "pupil of postmodernism"
established Vincent Van Duysen Architects in 1990
and has worked prolifically across architecture,
interiors and product design while collecting
accolades attesting to his expansive talent. Van
Duysen also is the creative director of furniture
brand Molteni&C and has conceptualized designs
from Alexander Wang's London flagship, to a starkly
modern farm in Belgium, to pottery and concrete
objects lighting. No one dare argue that his work is
of the most exquisite quality; if incongruity exists,
it is in this question: Is Van Duysen minimalist or
essentialist? His investment—insistence even—
in achieving a timelessness for today is more of
the essentialist feel, emphasized by Van Duysen
giving affection no quarter so that grace, nuance,
and clarity prevail.
PHOTOGRAPHS:
COURTESY
OF
ROBERT
REIGER
