vincent van duysen: private

Over the past three decades, Vincent Van Duysen has become an important force in design through his expressive architecture and serene interiors. This book documents the source of his inspirations and ongoing laboratory: his own homes.

Vincent Van Duysen has had an outsized influence on the world of architecture and design, from the rarefied echelons of interiors to highly successful collections for Zara Home and a nearly decade-long creative directorship of Molteni&C. Through his spare use of pure and tactile materials, Van Duysen employs a unique stylistic language that is both monastic and sensual, brutal and elegant, primal and refined. His commissions have included product design for numerous international brands, and commercial and large-scale architectural projects, among them high-end residences, a hotel, and retail spaces.

Uncompromisingly contemporary and endlessly inventive, Van Duysen’s residences are both his design laboratories and highly individualized spaces. This is especially true of his own homes, the subject of this very personal book. From his base in Belgium, where Van Duysen has carved out modern spaces from a centuries-old former notary office, to his ground-up Casa M in Portugal, where living spaces flow between elemental walls, Van Duysen conjures residential projects from concrete, natural stone, wood, and light.

In collaborating with the photographer François Halard, Van Duysen presents a truly personal vision of his own practice and point of view, where he becomes the architecture, and it becomes him.

Vincent van Duysen is an awarding-winning architect based in Antwerp, Belgium. He is currently the creative director of Molteni.

Francois Halard is a photographer based in Arles and Paris, France. He is the author of numerous Rizzoli books.