How Lived Aesthetics
Made Antwerp
a Capital of Refined Taste

(Maison Ë Visit) ”Speaking to the city more broadly, Ilse Cornelissens explains there’s a culture of appreciating and practicing good design that is passed on generationally. Cornelissens herself, together with her husband, runs the beautifully curated concept store Graanmarkt 13—an embodiment of the city’s quiet charm. Today, Antwerp is widely regarded as a center of refined taste across all creative disciplines.
“I think a lot of Antwerp’s talent learn from the generations before them,” she says. “This deep-rooted appreciation of quality comes from being raised here. It was the same for us. We learned a lot about quality from being here, especially from people like Vincent Van Duysen.”

Vincent Van Duysen splits his time between Antwerp, Portugal, and Italy, where he serves as the creative director of furniture giant Molteni & Co. Still, he has played a significant role in the city’s contemporary upgrade over the last decade or so. This is reflected in another Van Duysen project and one of the city’s most tasteful hotels, August, a former Augustinian convent turned serene urban retreat. The converted space signals how the city pays deep attention to its heritage but also uses a cultural understanding of quality and craft to transform the old into the new.

Van Duysen is one of Antwerp’s most recognizable talents in the realm of design, but he’s one of many. After all, this is the home of legendary fashion designer Dries Van Noten and the famous Antwerp Six collective he was a part of, which rose out of the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.

In terms of art and interiors, the esteemed designer and collector Axel Vervoodt owns one of Europe’s most understated gallery complexes on the outskirts of town called Kanaal. With its pared-back interiors, it’s a unique home for unique pieces. In one circular room (historically used as a storage space for grain), for example, a gigantic Anish Kapoor piece looms large. “At the Edge of the World” is a powerful artwork that immerses visitors in contemplation of form and void. It’s mood reflects the entire Kanaal facility: a shrine to considered art and design, with works from postwar Japanese Gutai artists to much more contemporary pieces.

The Antwerp Style

The cultural appreciation for quality is palpable across the streets of the city. In the span of a few cobbled blocks one can pick up a collectible print at Japanese contemporary photography gallery Ibasho (Japanese for “a place where you can be yourself,” opened in 2015), admire cutting-edge works at the Tim Van Laere Gallery (the city’s hub for contemporary art in the trendy new Nieuw Zuid district).

A short walk from Graanmarkt 13, past Dries Van Noten’s flagship Modepaleis (a renovated 1881 Art Nouveau gem that was historically the department store of the designer’s father) on Nationalestraat, you’ll find the studio of Thomas Haarmann.

“I don’t like to give this place a label,” the well-appointed designer explains as he welcomes Maison Ë into a warmly enveloping space, housing both contemporary pieces and vintage finds. While decorated in dark tones, an expansive skylight at the back of the room conveys a constant feeling of deliberate motion as the light shifts through the space throughout the day. “If you want it to be a shop, it’s a shop; if you want it to be a gallery, it’s a gallery. What it is is up to the people who visit,” he says. Works Haarmann has designed here range from playful ceramics to luxurious but understated stone-ware basins and monumental, solid wood furniture created for brands including the Netherlands’ Van Rossum, for whom he acts as a creative director. “I also like adding pieces I’ve purchased on my travels,” he says, admiring a giant aged water-carrying vessel from India. “I enjoy taking something from a very different context and introducing it here. I love placing something historic around something contemporary that I’ve designed.”

Haarmann, a German-born creative who moved to Belgium from London in 2008, has watched and played a role himself in Antwerp’s creative growth in the years since. “When I arrived, it was a place not known for design—fashion, yes, but design, no. Over the years, this has changed so much. I remember going to New York and telling people what I did and them responding ‘Oh yes, the Belgian style!’,” he reminices about the changing international perceptions. “Belgians do things organically. In the design world today, the reputation of Belgian and Antwerp design is very high. It’s the quietness of the design, real materials, and authenticity that reflect our culture. Here, it’s not about being showy on the street; it’s about the magic happening behind closed doors.”

Thomas Haarmann
A space where elegant furniture and tasteful ceramics invite contemplation, creating an atmosphere of good design. 

Tim Van Laere Gallery
Located in Antwerp’s upcoming Nieuw Zuid district, this gallery showcases contemporary artists in a spacious, modern venue with a well-curated program that draws a smart crowd of collectors. 

Ibasho Gallery
Specializing in Japanese-rooted fine art photography, this gallery occupies a converted old residence in Antwerp, where the knowledgeable owners live above the business.

Kanaal
Axel Vervoordt’s art sanctuary on Antwerp’s outskirts combines raw architectural space with monumental art installations.