Gustave STRAUVEN

(1878 - 1919)

Belgian architect

Gustave Strauven, born in Brussels in 1878, at the age of 18 was already working in the team of the great Belgian Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta. He remained there for 2 years before moving to Zurich in Switzerland to work as a drawer.

In 1899, Strauven went back to Brussels and started his architectural career.

His first works were located near the Ambiorix and Gutemberg squares and near the Ch. de Louvain. Then he build more in the Schaerbeek neiborhood where the City Council was active in renovating and social building.

His most famous work is the Maison Saint-Cyr, built in 1903 for the painter Georges de Saint-Cyr built. This flamboyant "baroque" Art Nouveau townhouse is full of metal swirls and geometric figures and, although limited by the small size of the façade, Gustave Strauven has achieved one of the most pleasant and remembered Art Nouveau façade of Brussels.

Always active, Strauven was involved with the new technical progress in building and registered many fifferent patents concerning housing techniques and other unconventional subject like the one for a one-wheel vehicle !

Gustave Strauven died in 1919 at the age of 40: all his work has been accomplished in just 20 years.

Major works: