nursery

Ernö Goldfinger’s Forgotten Nursery: A Modernist Vision for Childhood

27th February 2025

By greyscape

@Barbican_City_of_London

Blue sky moment, Barbican, City of London

Blue sky moment, Barbican, City of London

The back yard, Villa Empain, Brussels. Image Lizuk

The back yard, Villa Empain, Brussels. Image Lizuka • CC BY-SA 4.0

Art deco detail: this is the front door of Villa E

Art deco detail: this is the front door of Villa Empain a glorious Art Deco mansion in Brussels. Built between 1930 and 1934 for Baron Louis Empain, a wealthy Belgian industrialist. The architect was Michel Polak who was said in the execution of the design to ‘combine Bauhaus and Art Deco influences.

Originally a private family home. After a yachting accident in July 1936 Empain vowed to change his life, sold his two castles, renounced his title and focused his endeavours on improving the lot of others, particularly young people through the medium of sport and outdoor activities, ‘without regard to any distinctions of class, race or religion’. In 1937 the villa was gifted to the Belgian government. After the war the government having used the villa in a variety of ways with some success. Inexplicably it was allowed to fall into disrepair. In 2000, the Boghossian Foundation acquired and restored the villa, today a cultural and art centre. Image Sally CC BY-SA 4.0

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