a guest room at Mix Brussels with views of the Sonian Forest — A Data stool by Thomas Serruys and a pedestal table by Coddens outfit a guest room, which has uninterrupted views of the Sonian Forest.

October 26, 2023

Inside Mix Brussels, a Hospitality Entity in a Historic Locale

Too often these days, hip luxury hotels offer guests stylish, but predictable, Instagram-ready interiors. What’s saved on the budget by relying on catalogue-selected furnishings made in China is lost when two months later they break. Or so argued Lionel Jadot when pitching his interiors concept for Mix Brussels, a new 250,000-square-foot hospitality project, comprising a 180-room hotel, three restaurants, a food market, coworking space, gym, and an auditorium. Jadot’s eponymous atelier won the competition to outfit the entire property, which occupies six floors in the 12-story, former headquarters of the Royale Belge insurance company, a beloved 1970 functionalist landmark by the Belgian architect René Stapels and his French partner Pierre Dufau.

Located in a 20-acre suburban park with an ornamental lake, the building comprises a two-story concrete base, an intermediate floor, and a cruciform nine-story tower, its bronze-glass curtain walls enveloped by an exposed load-bearing Corten superstructure—a pioneering use of the weathering steel in Europe. In 2018, the protected 420,000-square-foot building was acquired by a consortium, which assigned its transformation into a mixed-use facility to London-based Caruso St John Architects in collaboration with Antwerp-based Bovenbouw Architectuur and Brussels practice DDS+. Beyond upgrading the signature bronze glazing to meet current codes, the architects did as little as possible to the historic structure, making only one significant intervention: a new circular lobby with a sweeping curved staircase. The 70-foot-diameter, three-story space not only serves as common access point for Mix and the building’s other tenants but also mirrors the circular form of the ground-floor auditorium, its rounded exterior clad in copper panels.

How Lionel Jadot Approached the Interiors of Mix Brussels

a woman looks out the window of a guest room at Mix Brussels — Atelier Lionel Jadot outfitted one of the 180 guest rooms at the hotel in Mix Brussels—a hospitality entity inside the landmarked former Royale Belge insurance company building—with a pendant globe by designer Roxane Lahidji, among the roster of 51 Belgium-based artisanal studios Lionel Jadot oversaw for the 250,000-square-foot project. Photography by Amber Vanbossel.

When Jadot came to work on the Mix interiors, he was immediately captivated by the “honesty” of the structure’s form-follows-function architecture. “All the historical interventions are like sculpture, with the function inside,” he notes, citing the auditorium as a case in point. He imagined a decorative program in conversation with the existing building—respectful but not beholden to it. “I was looking to act big and make sculptures to house the kitchen, offices, meeting rooms,” he says. He also wanted the interior to serve as “a communications tool” to promote contemporary Belgian design. So, rather than conceive everything himself, Jadot collaborated with Zaventem Ateliers, a creative community he founded in 2018 comprising 24 artists and designers—weavers, woodworkers, metalsmiths, sculptors—that share studio space with him in an old brick paper mill outside Brussels. They, along with 21 other local firms, would make everything, from coat hooks and table lamps to dining chairs and the reception desk, turning Mix into what he calls “the largest collectible-design showroom in Belgium.”

Sculptural Shades Made from Salt

The high-profile project, which took two years to complete, has been a game changer for the Zaventem group. Take Roxane Lahidji, a young designer who specializes in the development and application of salt as an ecological material. In a workshop-expanding commission, she produced more than 200 light fixtures with sculptural shades fashioned from the mineral mixed with natural resins and pigments for a marbleized effect. Siblings Alexandra and Grégoire Jonckers work in the tradition of their renowned sculptor father, Armand Jonckers, creating sensuously organic pieces of furniture out of bronze, clay, and resin. They used maillechort—an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc—to forge the reception desk, a stunning assemblage of billowing forms that echoes the voluptuous curves of the auditorium.

Experimental textile artists Erika Schillebeeckx and Justine de Moriamé of KRJST Studio create boldly baroque modern tapestries and fabrics that combine traditional weaving techniques with digital printing and generative algorithms. Here, they conceived the patterns printed on the silk-and-cotton curtains in the restaurant and guest rooms, which were then produced in collaboration with fellow Zaventem textile studio Home Sails. The firms also worked together on a pair of large-scale lobby tapestries that, thanks to embedded sensors, are interactive, producing different lighting effects in response to the movement of guests.

Custom Designs Include the Lobby Fireplace

Among the non-Zaventem creatives Jadot commissioned were the adventurous papier-mâché artists Maud Bocquet and Zélie Boulestreau of Papier Bouelettes, which makes large-scale bas-reliefs from recycled paper. The duo mixed rainwater with brown-cardboard waste onsite to make pulp that they hand-sculpted into monumental, botanically themed wall reliefs fronting two meeting rooms. And, of course, Jadot designed some major elements himself, including the lobby’s massive neo-brutalist concrete fireplace, its pair of gleaming brass flues rising to the ceiling. A glittering sculpture of his devising—jewel-tone scraps of crystal, recovered from venerable Belgian glassmaker Val Saint Lambert and set in a metal frame—sits in the grate as a kind of technicolor substitute for a conventional fire.

“It was crazy,” Jadot says of keeping the project on track. “My team was super afraid. But for me, it was a big adventure. I don’t get stressed.” Jadot is an instinctual talent who feels at ease amidst uncertainty. “My creative process is totally chaotic,” he admits. “I knew from the beginning that the carpet in the hotel would be olive green, and that aluminum, brass, and steel would play leading roles.” Why? “It was part of the energy I got from the building.”

Conceptualization began on the smallest scale, however, with sketches of bespoke knobs for the guest rooms. Cast in bronze by Liège-based foundry Woit, the hardware is embossed with an outline of the cruciform building, almost like a benediction. Or, as Jadot puts it, “I knew it would give me an atmosphere that nobody had ever seen before.”

a tapestry by KRJST Studio in the ground floor of Mix Brussels — On the ground floor, a tapestry by KRJST Studio backdrops Jadot’s Uruk sofa and Pierre Coddens’s table.

Explore Art and Design Inside Mix Brussels

a sweeping curved staircase in the circular lobby of Mix Brussels — The 1970 building was renovated by three firms, Bovenbouw Architectuur, DDS+, and Caruso St John Architects, the latter responsible for the sweeping curved staircase in the new three-story circular lobby.

the top level of the lobby of Mix Brussels with marbleized-salt globes over chairs — On the lobby’s top level, more of Lahidji’s marbleized-salt globes overlook chairs by Jadot and Chair Doctor, with woven-leather seats by Charles Schambourg.

a lobby area with a tapestry behind green chairs and matching flooring — Another lobby seating group includes a Jadot sofa, Francois Coppens slipper chairs, and a second tapestry by KRJST.

a guest room inside Mix Brussels with silk and cotton printed curtains — The studio collaborated with another textile atelier, Home Sails, on the digitally printed silk-and-cotton curtains in a guest room, where a pair of nightlights by Studio Elementaires flank a circular Solaire mirror by Jonas Moënne.

the Corten structure of the former Royale Belge building — The Royale Belge building’s original exposed Corten superstructure.

the ceramic-and-glass back of a Moënne mirror — The mottled ceramic-and-glass back of a Moënne mirror.

papier-mâché reliefs clad the outside of a meeting room — The papier-mâché reliefs cladding a meeting room.

A detail of a papier-mâché bas relief by Papier Boulette.

a pendant hangs in front of digitally printed curtains in a guest room — KRJST’s curtains behind a Lahidji pendant in a guest room.

pillows billow atop a couch in a guest room at Mix Brussels — Pillows by Simples on a guest room’s couch by Custom Cut.

a maillechort reception desk — Maison Jonckers’s billowing maillechort reception desk.

a meeting area check-in counter with marble columns — Codden’s lamp on Jadot’s meeting-area check-in counter.

a sculptural mural beside a swimming pool at Mix Brussels — Omar Griouat’s sculptural mural beside the swimming pool.

a yoga studio inside Mix Brussels — Japanese-style tatami mats line the second-floor yoga studio floor; the pre-cast concrete coffers are original to the 1970 building by architects René Stapels and Pierre Dufau.

a sculptural mural lines the wall beside an indoor pool — In the gym, the cast-concrete mural by Griouat, a Belgian-Moroccan artist, runs the full length of the pool.

PROJECT TEAM

atelier lionel jadot: cristina gusano; pierrot deconinck; guillaume thilly; juliette geeraert; juliette moyersoen; julien croenen; louise michiels.

metzger et associés architecture: heritage architect.

atelier eole paysagistes: landscape architect.

ellyps nv: structural engineer.

rvr studiebureau van reeth: services engineer.

Projects
Pieter De Bruyne’s Last Work Receives Landmark Status
The landmarking of the last work of the late Belgian designer Pieter De Bruyne, a house in Aalst, Belgium, earns him new fans.
Projects
Umu’s Founder Creates a Sustainable Family Home in Belgium
In the Belgian countryside, artist, designer, and Umu founder Sven Bullaert crafts his family home in a manner that’s both sustainable and groovy.
Projects
Atelier Lionel Jadot Creates an Exotic Narrative for a London Townhouse
Lionel Jabot renovated a Belgravia townhouse in London.