At Home With: Designer Raphaël Van Gend

Touring the beautiful home of Belgian-born Designer, Raphaël Van Gend. 

Take a peek into his stunning home in Brussels. 

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Despite an intense attention to detail, the 1920s house is uncluttered to the point of emptiness. ‘‘To me, an absence of things is peaceful,’’ Van Gend says. With a deft sense of composition, he arranged almost cinematic vignettes with a scarce amount of furniture chosen from a variety of periods: geometric brass sconces by the postwar Belgian designer Jules Wabbes, a square, patinated steel chair by the contemporary designer Franck Robichez and a creamy, undulating sofa by Pierre Paulin, originally manufactured in the late ’60s. When he couldn’t find an armchair to complement the sofa, he designed a swiveling leather captain’s chair upholstered in Kvadrat fabric. He also re-envisioned the room’s intricate floor, polishing the interlocking grid of tiles custom-cut from solid chips of oak into a pale finish.

A beautiful space that's absolutely pristine. For how minimal and white everything is, I somehow find this space to feel very inviting. I could compare it to a Gallery space that reels you into the details of a piece of work. I want to study that sofa, walk around it, take it all in. Although, I would find it too terrifying to actually take a seat as if it were an art piece. However, Gend's studio is another story. I want to touch everything in there. Study the pencil and notebooks he has layed out on his desk to maybe get a bit of a glimpse into his creative mindset. It's truly an inspirational space. 

View more images and read more about Raphaël Van Gend online via The New York Times, here.