Villa Bloemenwerf

Villa Bloemenwerf is an Art Nouveau house at 102 Avenue Vanderaey in Uccle, a district of Brussels, Belgium, built in 1895 and 1896 as the first work of architecture by the designer Henry van de Velde, who built it as his own home and acted as both architect and client; his wife, Maria Sethe, designed the surrounding garden. The exterior draws on the Arts and Crafts movement, taking inspiration from William Morris's Red House in London, and Van de Velde extended his design past the building itself to the textiles, wallpaper, silverware, jewellery and even the clothing used inside it, creating one unified artistic environment. The house served as both his private residence and a workshop for him and his collaborators, and until Van de Velde moved to Weimar, Germany, in 1900 it functioned as a meeting place for the European intellectual and artistic elite of the day. It survives today as a recognized example of early Art Nouveau architecture in Brussels.