Architect Bernard Dubois takes est through one of Brussels’ most exciting new design hotels, housed within a former 1960s office tower in the city’s Northern Quarter.
The Standard, Brussels, is part of a redesigned three-building complex by architects 51N4E and L’AUC, sharing a rapidly evolving neighbourhood with the Centre Pompidou museum and fairs such as Art Brussels. Headlining the hotel’s interior design is Bernard Dubois Architects, who worked with The Standard’s Chief Design Officer Verena Haller and in-house design team to create 200 rooms and suites over 28 storeys, alongside the hotel’s hospitality spaces: The Lobby Bar, The Double Standard and Lila29.
Five years in the making, architect Bernard Dubois says he received what was essentially a blank canvas, allowing him to create an entirely new hotel layout inside the architectural shell. “In the lobby and bar space, we decided to exaggerate the columns by wrapping them in these large symmetrical arches to help structure the space,” he explains. He credits Belgian Brutalist architect André Jacqmain and the library he built in the Belgian town of Wallonia in the 1970s as a reference for the arches. “It’s one of my favourite buildings, all concrete,” he says. “It felt right to bring a touch of that local architectural heritage into the design—to interpret the brand in a way that’s attuned to the local culture and character.”
The former 1960s office towers were dismantled and rebuilt, reusing materials and elements to create this innovative new development.
As with all of his work, Dubois loves exploring multiple iterations of a design, considering twelve versions of the arches pictured before landing on the final design.
Most of the furniture was custom-designed for the hotel by Bernard Dubois Architects, reflecting his ongoing interest in brutalist, tactile design. A selection of vintage and off-the-shelf pieces accompanies the furniture. “We’ve had requests from people who want to buy pieces, but they’re really designed to belong to this space,” Dubois adds.
During the design process, Dubois recalls his entire office being filled with samples—upholstery, metals, lacquer finishes. “The idea was to create a coherent whole, but with a lot of variety,” he says. Rather than repetition, The Standard, Brussels is composed of smaller spaces within larger ones, allowing each part of the hotel to have a slightly different atmosphere. “So as a guest, you can find your favourite corner,” Dubois adds.
Most of the furniture was custom-designed by Bernard Dubois Architects for the hotel, complemented by a handful of vintage and off-the-shelf pieces. All of the carpet patterns that appear in the corridors and suites were also designed by the architecture studio, inspired by the Art Deco period, which involved many colour tests to achieve the right tone.
There’s a cinematic quality to the interiors, which Dubois reaffirms through the design of the corridors, nodding to The Shining with their proportions and long view. Inside the guest suites, theatre takes the form of curtains that conceal the television; one of many elements designed for surprise and discovery. “We only have one colour palette across the rooms, but each one has its own design variation,” Dubois says. Here, everything you see is custom, and while there are Art Deco threads, such as the hammered glass in the bar, the architect isn’t shy to mix different decades. “Even the electrical outlets reflect this,” he says. “We used Bticino’s vintage series from the ‘60s, which I even have in my own home.”
The Double Standard, the ground-floor all-day restaurant, is located next to the lobby. Lined with brick-like tiled floors, timber, and high-gloss finishes, the space unfolds around a focal stainless steel island and a tapestry by Belgian artist Sam Druant.
“While some pieces are vintage, they all speak the same language,” Dubois says. “The idea was to create coherence between things that are different—different materials, different origins—but still feel like they belong together.”
The downstairs restaurant, The Double Standard, is designed as a more casual dining experience for breakfast and lunch, featuring the same arch motif as the lobby, with a strong connection to the terrace space. “Some of the layouts and floor patterns are inspired by Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck’s playgrounds—those half-circles and columnar grids,” he says. The architect describes the focal stainless steel and stone bar as similar to a giant car grille from the 1930s, bookended by graphic tapestry by Belgian artist Sam Druant.
The Standard, Brussels’ crowning jewel, is Lila29, a rooftop bar and restaurant on its 29th floor, with its own rooftop garden. Composed of different levels and custom seating arrangements, cusped by powder pink sheer curtains, the hospitality space is designed to feel like an elegant, more grown-up culmination of the drama effused by the spaces below.
“There’s something very satisfying about creating a whole new world behind a hotel facade,” Dubois says, and it’s this depth of design thinking that makes The Standard, Brussels so much more than just a place to stay.
The circular bar and banquette seating seen in the hotel’s rooftop restaurant and bar, Lila29, is echoed in the private suites.
The suites all share the same colour palette, but each has its own variation. Bernard Dubois Architects designed all of the carpet patterns seen throughout the hotel.
For the first time, The Standard has introduces extended-stay Suites on the last two top floors of the hotel, designed as a home-away-from-home.
The Standard, Brussels’ rooftop bar and restaurant, Lila29 takes in views of the city with its own rooftop garden.
