Aarschot and architecture. A belle époque house with rare tile ceramics

(Statiestraat 51)

According to the facade stone, this house was built in 1904 and survived the Allied bombing of May 1944 quite well. On February 2, 1924, the house was purchased by the grandfather of Brigitte Raskin, namely Joannes Amandus Raskin. The family has 10 children and after the death of father Raskin, the house is bequeathed at the beginning of the war, namely on October 11, 1940, to Anna Maria Gerardina Mathildis Raskin (°Stevoort 11/2/1896), a teacher in Aarschot.

We do not know the architect.

What stands out here?

The house is a beautiful example of houses that were built at the end of the 19th century up to the First World War. Regarding the asymmetrical facade plan, there is a seemingly independent house of three bays with the entrance door taking precedence. In addition, we see a somewhat recessed fourth bay.

The whole, with the stepped gable, gives a somewhat 'medieval' impression. The inspiration is of course from our medieval houses, but there is actually no further similarity. Behind this gable, there is still an almost fully-fledged room, as evidenced by the three windows. This is in contrast to the house next door, where the stepped gable is almost purely decorative. There are both pinnacles and brickwork frames.

The medieval streaks have been replaced here by layers of colored brick, namely yellow and blue. The blue stands out and accentuates not only the layers but especially the shapes around the arches around the windows.

There is a heavily supported balcony, made of wrought iron. Since it is wrought iron and thus handmade, it is relatively simple. But it can also be more complex, such as the balcony of the house next door.

The facade mainly consists of red brick in a common cross bond. There is a heavy stone plinth, made of 'blocks' that have been worked in different ways. There are stone water tables.

There is a basement floor, probably spanning the entire house, as evidenced by the basement windows, but there is no main floor here. Still, there is a step up to the ground-level spaces.

The wall openings are relatively high. The windows are arched. Above the door, we have a transom in a horseshoe shape that strongly reminds one of the influence of Art Nouveau.

Furthermore, we notice the very conscious recesses in which tile panels with a figurative image are heavily framed.

In the last quarter of the 19th century, there were architects who advocated for more color in the facade. To achieve this, there are different possibilities. Initially, it is about using colored bricks. The brick industry saw a high rise during that period, both in terms of automation and techniques. We have already seen that yellow and brown bricks were often used for the facades of terrace houses or even for the complete construction of detached houses during the interwar period. We have just seen examples of yellow and white stone for the complete Art Nouveau facade. In the - whether or not eclectic - houses of the Belle Époque, colored bricks are also often used, not infrequently in patterns or larger colored areas. Yellow seems to be the favorite, but accents are also placed with blue and green bricks. These bricks could be ‘untreated’ matte, but also glazed.

In addition, a ceramics industry developed in the second half of the 19th century that also provided products for construction. Among other things, they developed tile panels with figurative images that could be incorporated into a facade. Here we see several of those panels, undoubtedly produced by the Manufacture de Céramiques – Majoliques de Hasselt. In one of the images, we see the Orléans tower. By the way, the whole image resembles the numerous postcards that were made of this site. It is therefore likely that this panel was custom-made. That was not uncommon during that period.

Jan Rymenams