Hôtel Aubecq 3.0: een horizontale façade

The stately mansion on Avenue Louise was built in 1902 for lawyer and industrialist Octave Aubecq. Despite protests, the house was demolished in 1950. Jean Delhaye, a student and protector of Horta's work, managed to rescue the facade with its stones, window frames, doors, and balconies from the demolition containers. After this, the 600 recovered stones of the facade began a long wandering journey, from one vacant lot or depot to another. In 2001, the stones came into the possession of Brussels Gewest, after which they were cleaned and 3D digitized, before being temporarily shown to the public in 2011. Stones with a future De Aubecqgevel, which was recognized as movable cultural heritage in 2014, is finally getting the visibility it deserves today. It has been reconstructed in a horizontal plane on the premises of Constructiv in Sint-Agatha-Berchem. This initiative is part of an unprecedented public-private partnership between Urban and Constructiv, which is developing a training center for construction and heritage trades in Sint-Agatha-Berchem. The flat arrangement of the heritage stones is intended to make the remains of this masterpiece accessible to the public and also serve as a pedagogical tool for tomorrow's artisans. In the longer term, a sustainable, full or partial reconstruction of the facade on the site is being considered.