Fleur de Ville

Some buildings have more than one life.

In the heart of Brussels stands a hotel that was never meant to be one.

Behind its doors, money was once counted.
Decisions were made.
People came to save for lives that hadn't happened yet.

This was once the Caisse Générale d'Épargne et de Retraite, one of Belgium's great banking institutions.

Built at the end of the nineteenth century, the building was designed by architect Henri Beyaert and later extended by Henri van Dievoet and Alban Chambon.

More than a century later, much of it is still here.

More than a century later, much of it is still here.

The staircase.
The stained glass.
The wood.
The ironwork.
The fireplaces.

Details made in a time when buildings were expected to outlive the people who made them.

When the building became Hotel Fleur de Ville, its past wasn't erased.

It was allowed to remain.

Look closely and you can still find traces of the people who walked these rooms long before there were suitcases beside the beds.

Perhaps that is what gives a place a soul.

Not that it has remained unchanged.

But that in becoming something new,

it didn't have to forget what it had been.

→ Discover Hotel Fleur de Ville, Brussels

Venice

Some places ask to be seen slowly.

Venice is one of them.

Through a doorway.

Between curtains.

Across the water.

In the brief moment someone passes by.

A city that reveals itself in glimpses.