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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 postmodern-
ism" established Vincent Van Duysen Archi-
tects in 1990 and has worked prolifically
across architecture, interiors and product
design while collecting accolades attest-
ing 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
n cobblestoned, culturally important
Antwerp, the August hotel takes its
name from its roots as an Augus-
tinian convent but its design cues
from Vincent Van Duysen. With the
Belgian architect's commitment to
materiality and pure forms unam-
biguous, 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 differ-
ent arts as a child—architecture, painting,
theatre—and my father had incredibly
intuitive artistic skills," he says. "These
were the primary influences for my appre-
ciation 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
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