Objects with Narratives joins Zaventem Ateliers' inhabitation of Villa Empain

Objects with Narratives announces its role as cultural partner for Zaventem Ateliers’s inhabitation of Villa Empain, a project unfolding in Brussels, Belgium, from March 11 – 19, 2026, alongside art and design fairs such as TEFAF Maastricht and Collectible Brussels. For ten days, Zaventem Ateliers will inhabit Villa Empain not as exhibitors, but as residents, activating one of Europe’s most significant Art Deco houses through daily life rather than display. “Villa Empain will not function as an exhibition space. Its original domestic programme is reactivated. Living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms and shared spaces are used as such, forming a continuous lived environment shaped by contemporary collectible design and art,” the press release reads.

“Villa Empain, conceived in 1934 as a private residence, is defined by proportion, ritual and material intelligence. Zaventem Ateliers gathers contemporary practices that are experimental, direct and rooted in the present,” notes the press release. 31 contemporary designers and artists, including Lionel Jadot, Krjst Studio, Sophie Coucke, Ben Storms, Emma Cogné, Precious Peels and Serban Ionescu live inside the house throughout the ten days. They work there, eat there and rest there. Product designs on display are not arranged for distant observation but engaged through touch, repetition and necessity.

The building serves as an active participant rather than just a backdrop for the design exhibition. Contemporary design enters into direct tension with the villa’s Art Deco language without softening it or lapsing into nostalgia. “This is not historical revival or period reconstruction,” the press release notes. The encounter between past and present is deliberate. The historical floor plan becomes a framework for use rather than display, and visitors do not move through isolated pieces but enter a continuously inhabited environment.

Zaventem Ateliers operates as both a family and a laboratory, a place where emerging voices gain legitimacy and where design moves beyond decoration toward something fully human. In a world drifting toward abstraction—where screens replace hands and interfaces dilute contact—this occupation insists on physical presence. Cooking, setting a table, resting in a chair, speaking across a room—essentially, occupying a space—becomes a quiet political act.

A creative partnership between Design Qatar, Objects with Narratives and Collectible Brussels extends the dialogue beyond Brussels, linking the project to the wider international design landscape. Throughout the villa, a spatial sound composition by EyevEyes punctuates the rooms. It is not decorative but architectural, reinforcing the sense of inhabitation and grounding the experience in physical presence. “This is a project entirely devoted to contemporary design and art—not historical reinterpretation, not period revival. The past and the present coexist without compromise,” they note.

“Visitors do not move through isolated objects but enter a house that is continuously inhabited. Design is encountered through time, repetition and proximity. Meaning emerges through shared moments, overheard conversations and the choreography of daily life. The villa becomes something to move through, not something to observe,” the press release mentions.