When speaking about Belgian modernist architecture, attention usually shifts to Antwerp, Brussels or Ghent. Yet quietly, in the Kempen, one of Belgium's most remarkable concentrations of late modernist architecture took shape during the 1960s and 1970s.

Modernism Takes Root in Turnhout

What would later be grouped under the name Turnhoutse School by Renaat Braem in 1976, was not a formal school in the academic sense, but rather a generation of architects working in and around Turnhout who shared a strikingly coherent architectural language. Their buildings combined sculptural volumes, honest materials, integrated interiors and a strong dialogue with landscape. Houses opened onto patios and gardens, concrete met warm brick, and furniture was often conceived as part of the architecture itself. It was a form of modernism that remained warm, practical and closely connected to everyday living. Among the architects associated with this movement were Paul Schellekens, Carli Vanhout, Paul Neefs, Lou Jansen, Rudy Schiltz and Eugène Wauters. The own house of Paul Neefs, featured in the Klara series 'De Modernisten', offers a beautiful insight into the spatial intelligence and lived quality of this architecture. You can watch this episode below. Though each architect developed a personal handwriting, together they transformed Turnhout and the surrounding villages into an unexpected laboratory of late modernist architecture. Villas, apartment buildings, schools, social housing and cultural institutions still testify to this extraordinary period.

De Warande and the Spirit of the 1970s

One of the movement's most important landmarks is De Warande, Turnhout's cultural centre and, coincidentally, the building I look out on every day from my home across the street. Its monumental concrete forms, layered terraces and integrated public spaces remain one of the clearest statements of the confidence and ambition that defined this generation of architects.

A Modernist Landscape Still to Discover

The roots of this architectural culture can already be found one generation earlier in the work of Jozef Schellekens, provincial architect of Turnhout and father of Paul Schellekens. Long before the emergence of the Turnhoutse School, he introduced a modernist vision in which architecture, interior, furniture and art formed one coherent whole. His own modernist house in Turnhout became an essential prelude to what would later unfold across the Kempen. What makes the Turnhoutse School so fascinating today is that it was never conceived as isolated monumentality. It was architecture for daily life: tactile, spatially inventive and deeply connected to its surroundings. 

For anyone visiting Turnhout with an interest in 20th century architecture, the city offers one of Belgium's still largely undiscovered modernist architecture routes. AR-TUR created a downloadable map of the Turnhoutse School, allowing visitors to explore these buildings in person.

→  Download 'Turnhoutse School' Map

→  Jozef Schellekens in the Maison Moderniste Collection