The Maison Mattot is a modernist-style residential building on Frans Dewandre Boulevard in Charleroi, Belgium. It was designed in 1937 by architect Marcel Leborgne for the Reine Astrid Maternity Hospital's director, Dr. Mattot. It is a Terraced house with a consultation room on the first floor and an apartment on the piano nobile, adapted to the needs of a single person.
The architect also designed the furnishings, of which only the built-in elements have survived.
History
In 1937, architect
Marcel Leborgne designed a house for Henri Mattot, gynecologist and medical director of the nearby Reine Astrid Maternity Hospital,
[Mengeot and Bioul 2015, p. 50.] amid the urbanization of
Charleroi Boulevard Dewandre. It features a long, narrow,
chevron-shaped
[Strauven, Le Maire and Dailly 2017, p. 107.] lot whose front and rear façades are clearly separated and staggered.
[Bioul 2004, p. 215.] The building is flanked by the
Moreau building and is located on the opposite side of the boulevard from the
Henry building. Both buildings, as well as the maternity hospital, were designed by the same architect and built at the same time.
In 1955, following a change of ownership, the second floor was enlarged and a terrace was added.[PMDB, p. 87.]
Other minor alterations were made to adapt the building to office use, especially in the rear section.[Bioul 2004, p. 2015.] In 2015, the building was occupied by an architecture firm.[Mengeot and Bioul 2015, p. 51.]
Architecture
In this
Modernism construction, Marcel Leborgne manages to dominate the particular configuration of the terrain to respond correctly to the specific requirement of "housing for a bachelor gynecologist".
[Bioul 2004, p. 214.][Bioul 2009, p. 85.]
"The volumetry, frequently somewhat elaborate in earlier works, shifts here towards a marked elementarism, while attention to detail is increasingly focused along with the richness of the materials".[Strauven and Van Loo 2003, p. 391.]
The building has three levels.
On the first floor, spaces are compartmentalized according to function:
On the main façade, a glass roof, illuminating only the practice, gently
The second floor is a vast, completely open space, based on the principles of Frank Lloyd Wright,[Bioul 2004, p. 217.] A glass rotunda provides maximum light.
The top floor features a second apartment, probably intended for guests, and a chambre de bonne.
The first two levels are clad with Guérin sandstone[Flouquet 1939a, p. 106.] bricks in pierre de France color, adding brightness to the façade.
Interior design and furniture
On the first floor, the design of the consultation room - office, examination room, and dressing room - corresponds to modernist principles, while the play on curves and lines in the stairwell is more in the spirit of
Art Deco.
[Bioul 2004, p. 216.] The polychromy, which has now disappeared, was described in
Bâtir magazine as a mixture of blue and gold leaf, red,
Ebony, pale apricot, green and black.
[Bioul 2004, p. 218.]
On the second floor, all functions are grouped together in the same space,
Marcel Leborgne also designed all the furniture[Flouquet 1939b, p. 307.] to "guarantee order and prevent unnecessary variations". This furniture has now disappeared,[Bioul 2004, p. 217-218.] The furniture was produced by Ateliers d'art De Coene frères (nl) of Kortrijk.
Notes
See also
Bibliography
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...À Charleroi, Marcel Leborgne, Charleroi, Espace Environnement, 1990, 48 p., p. 27-29.
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Le patrimoine monumental de la Belgique, vol. 20 : Wallonie, Hainaut, Arrondissement de Charleroi, Liège, Pierre Mardaga, éditeur, 1994, 602 p. (ISBN 2-87009-588-0, read online archive PDF), p. 87.
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Anne-Catherine Bioul, Vivre aujourd'hui dans un intérieur d'autrefois, à Charleroi, Namur, Ministère de la Région Wallonne, coll. "Études et documents / Monuments et sites" (no. 10), 2004, 245 p., p. 214-218.
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Anne-Catherine Bioul, "Marcel Leborgne ou le choix de la modernité "humaine"", Les Cahiers de l'Urbanisme, Wavre, Service public de Wallonie/Éditions Mardaga, no. 73, September 2009, pp. 84-85 (ISBN 978-2-8047-0029-4, read online archive PDF).
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Pierre-Louis Flouquet, "Marcel Leborgne, habitation pour un médecin, à Charleroi", Bâtir, no. 76, March 1939, pp. 106-107 ( read online archive PDF).
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Pierre-Louis Flouquet, "Marcel Leborgne, constructeur lyrique", Bâtir, no. 80, July 1939, pp. 297-329 ( read online archive PDF).
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Chantal Mengeot and Anne-Catherine Bioul, Le patrimoine de Charleroi : Les fleurs de l'industrie : Art nouveau, Art déco et Modernisme, Namur, Institut du patrimoine wallon, coll. "Carnets du Patrimoine" (no. 128), 2015, 64 p. (ISBN 978-2-87522-148-3).
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Jean-Alexandre Pouleur, Anne-Catherine Bioul and Alain Dauchot, Charleroi, ville d'architectures : Du Temps des Forteresses aux Années Folles 1666-1940, Charleroi, Espace Environnement, 2007, 2nd ed. (1st ed. 1992), 112 p. (ISBN 978-2-930507-00-2).
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Iwan Strauven and Anne Van Loo (eds.), "Leborgne Marcel", in Dictionnaire de l'architecture en Belgique de 1830 à nos jours, Antwerp, Fonds Mercator, 2003, 624 p. (ISBN 90-6153-526-3), pp. 390-391.
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Iwan Strauven (ed.), Judith Le Maire (ed.) and Marie-Noëlle Dailly (ed. and photogr.), 1881-2017 Charleroi métropole, Brussels, Mardaga and Cellule architecture de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, coll. "Guide d'architecture moderne et contemporaine" (no. 4), 2017, 367 p. (ISBN 978-2-8047-0367-7), p. 107.
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