The emblematic modernist headquarters of car importer D’Ieteren in Rue du Mail in Ixelles has been included on the Brussels list of monuments. This was announced by the office of the regional Secretary of State for Spatial Planning and Heritage, Ans Persoons (Vooruit). The procedure to protect various parts of the building was launched in 2022 under her predecessor Pascal Smet.

The Ixelles site has been owned by the D’Ieteren family since 1906. The complex consists of several buildings from different periods. The most remarkable part is located at 50 Rue du Mail/Maliestraat.

Building of architect René Stapels

It was built between 1962 and 1967 to plans by René Stapels, assisted by architects Robert Badinet, B. Lefèvre-Feragen, Jean-Louis Lemaître, and Jamar. In 1969, Stapels also envisaged the renovation of garages for car maintenance, an underground car park, an elevated car park, an interior street, and spaces for new services that would occupy the entire site.

The Liège-born Stapels is also the architect of The Royale Belge former headquarters, a functionalist building in cross-shaped design. He also contributed to the design of the World Trade Center towers and the Inn in Brussels.

Historic family place

On the spot in the Rue du Mail where the main building now stands, Alfred and Émile D’Ieteren – grandsons of the wheelwright Jean-Joseph D’Ieteren, who carried out commissions for Brussels coach builders around 1805 – had their new premises built in 1906, including an “ultra-modern workshop” for their activities in coach building.

The company did good business, and, over time, the company buildings were extensively remodeled and enlarged in successive stages to form the complex erected in modernist style with a functionalist streak, large parts of which are thus now protected.

‘Don’t repeat mistakes’

“Brussels is not only the city of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, but also has many Modernist and Brutalist buildings,” says Ans Persoons. “Architectural styles that some people still consider ‘ugly’. But we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. This style perfectly reflects the spirit of an era and the architectural revival of the 1960s and 1970s.”

The site, which covers 67,000 m² and houses the museum that tells the group’s history, is currently being transformed by British firm ALA. The aim is to reduce the density of the site and open the city block in the image of an international group open to the world.

The site will include offices, shops, such as a bike shop, facilities, and the D’Ieteren Gallery. The garage operations have already been relocated.