Residence Palace

Name Residence Palace

Address 155 Rue de La Loi

City/Neighborhood Brussels

Style(s)

Art Deco

Original use

Shop
Habitat
HoReCa (Hotel/Restaurant/Café)
Show venue

Année 1927

Architect(s) and/or artist(s)

Polak Michel

Site web https://www.residencepalace.be/en

Originally, it was a vast complex of residential buildings designed by the Swiss architect Michel Polak, at the request of the developer Lucien Kaisin.

The ambitious project provided for 180 modern apartments equipped with the latest technology, spread across ten districts, with in addition restaurants, a theater, a swimming pool, gymnasiums, roof terraces, a bank, a post office and proximity shops.

The developer called it "the small city within the big one".

The whole thing was very luxuriously decorated, in Art Deco style, quite sober, with however neo-Renaissance stained glass windows next to a mosaic fountain in Mediterranean colors in the great hall. The facades are rather classic, without superfluous decorations, sober ironwork adorns doors and balconies. Completed in 1927, the complex was successful for a few years, then quickly, the war, the occupation by the enemy, then by the liberation forces, caused the buildings to undergo depredations and transformations. Bought in 1947 by the Belgian state for office purposes, while keeping the swimming pool, the large lounges and the restaurants.

Then came the "European" years, with the demolition of one of the districts, to build the Council buildings.

Some blocks have returned to their original purpose, namely housing, all the rest houses offices, conference rooms, restaurants, and the EU press center.

Today, we can still admire from the outside, the impressive work of Michel Polak, as well as the beautiful interiors which have been recently renovated and to this day (2025) the swimming pool is being restored.