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Michel Polak, an architect of wonder

With Benoît Schoonbroodt, Thierry Henrard, Cécile Dubois, and Thomas Greck

Study day ◇ 13 June 2022

As part of the exhibition Michel Polak, technology and craftsmanship, an architecture of wonder, the curators Stéphanie De Blieck and Manon Magotteaux are organising a study day that combines architecture, history and urbanism at the Boghossian Foundation. Specialists Benoît Schoonbroodt, Thierry Henrard, Cécile Dubois, and Thomas Greck will dive into the technicality and elegance of Michel Polak’s architecture.

 

Michel Polak’s achievements in Montreux at 10.30 am

The author Benoît Schoonbroodt reviews the most important architectural creations of the architect Michel Polak during his Montreux period, including the Villa Nestlé, the Château Riant residence, the Sutter-Séchaud building and the protestant church of Glion. He also discusses the influence of the Villa Karma on his work, and in particular on the Villa Empain.

 

A brief history of the Residence Palace and the challenges of restoring its architecture at 11.15 am

The architect Thierry Henrard revisits the history of the monumental architectural project of the Residence Palace that was completed in 1927. The occupation, then the takeover by the Belgian state in 1947, led to transformations and partial demolitions which gradually altered its identity. With the progressive development of the European quarter at the end of the 20th century, there was even talk of total demolition. However, several European political treaties will have a significant impact on the future of the buildings and their restoration.

 

Polak and Empain: the Home of Sainte-Ode and the Castle of Celly at 2 pm

The guide-lecturer Cécile Dubois, and the architect Thomas Greck will close this study day and enlighten us on the history of the Institute “Air et Soleil” in Sainte-Ode and the only known incursion of the architect Michel Polak in the neo-medieval register with the Castle of Celly.

Cécile Dubois is a historian and has been working as a tour guide at the Villa Empain since its opening to the public in 2010. She is the author of Bruxelles Art Déco, Editions Racine, 2014 and president of the Brussels Art Deco Society.

 

Thomas Greck graduated as an architect from the La Cambre-Horta faculty of the ULB in 2020. He is the author of the thesis Profane neo-Gothic architecture in Wallonia: evolution, meaning and destiny, a study of the neo-Gothic movement in Wallonia from its origins to the fate of the buildings in the 20th and 21st centuries. The thesis was awarded the special thesis prize of the Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta.

 

Thierry Henrard is an architect and has been involved in the restoration of the Residence Palace since 2005. He managed the Europa building in Block A until its delivery at the end of 2016, and since 2019 he has been responsible, together with Eve Deprez, for the development of a Masterplan and its implementation for Block C.

 

Benoît Schoonbroodt has a degree in architecture and communication and has been a member of the Royal Commission for Monuments and Sites of the Brussels Region since 2017. After having published a series of historical studies on the urban parks of Brussels, he became interested in Art Nouveau and Art Deco, themes on which he published the works Privat Livemont entre tradition et modernité au cœur de l’Art Nouveau, Editions Racine, 2007, Adolphe Crespin (1859-1944) Aux Origines de l’Art Nouveau, Pandora, 2005 and Artistes belges de l’Art Nouveau, Editions Racine et Lannoo, 2008. He also devoted a monograph to Michel Polak published in 2003.

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