Hôtel Cammaert, Kardinaal Mercierlei 15 — Anvers

Town house in the Art Deco style built for Fr. Cammaert after a 1928 design by the architect Edward Craeye (façade inscription); it belongs to the mature work of Craeye, who from the 1920s worked mainly on social housing for the Antwerp society for low-cost housing. Of three bays and three storeys under a slate pseudo-mansard, the red-brick façade makes abundant use of white stone for the ground floor, surrounds, bay window, frieze and dormer. The symmetrical composition emphasises the central axis, marked by the rectangular bay window of the bel-étage on stepped brackets with an openwork balcony. The reliefs of the bay window, parapets and frieze depict bunches of grapes, vine tendrils, flowers and fruit, notably as baskets that the inventory calls typical of Art Deco; a fluted frieze and a wooden cornice on brackets crown the façade. The wooden joinery of the front door, garage door and windows, the spiral-patterned ironwork and small coloured stained-glass panes showing a ship and a windmill survive. The house is recorded in the Flemish architectural heritage inventory and lies within the protected townscape of Kardinaal Mercierlei and its surroundings (1994).

Translated from the French original.