Maison Van Looy, Michiel Melynstraat 19 — Anvers

Town house in the Art Deco style, built for the architect Karel Van Looy to his own 1935 design; it is not clear whether it was his own home or a house intended for letting or sale. Within his local work of standard models, it stands out for the shape of its façade and for a layout departing from the traditional plan, organised around a top-lit stair hall, with an office where his practice may have been located. Of three bays and two storeys under a flat roof, it has a semicircular cornice façade on a shouldered-arch plan, in yellow-red brick, entirely symmetrical. The recessed central entrance bay between two brick piers is marked on the upper floor by a white-stone oculus with a keystone decorated with foliage; the side bays end in stepped ends crowned with floral and scroll motifs, and the door lintel is made of stepped blocks fanning around a keystone with a garland. The ground-floor joinery, including the front door with hammered glass, survives. The house is recorded in the Flemish architectural heritage inventory.

Translated from the French original.