Brussels is frequently written off as a grey and stuffy city. But for interior designer Michel Penneman, who rose to international fame after designing the Hotel Pantone in his hometown, the Belgian capital's appeal lies in the fact that it eludes classification.
'Brussels is interesting because it's a very eclectic city,' he says. While Paris is magnificent and coherent, Brussels is uneven, he admits, but it's a city of small jewels that pop up where you least expect them.
Penneman has also designed the interiors of the Vintage Hotel, Tenbosch House and the White Hotel there, and is working on several more. Among them are a 50-room guesthouse for the owner of the White Hotel, a playful hotel for children (actual children and 'children who are 95') and a hostel for young people in a multicultural neighbourhood.
For the White Hotel, a limited budget led Penneman to fill it with furniture and pieces by young, emerging local designers. When it came to designing L'Antichambre, a perfumery on the sophisticated Place Brugmann, he wanted to create an atmosphere of timelessness using traditional materials - parquet floors, leather and copper - and designing pieces of furniture that didn't touch the ground. The piece de resistance is a copper cloud suspended in the centre of the room near a seat where customers can go to feel quiet and cocooned.
Just like his hometown, Penneman's approach to design is eclectic and he doesn't favour a particular style or period. He loves the greats - Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Danish mid-century design - but is not a vintage groupie.
Penneman says Belgians are very modest. And so is he, crediting architectural collaborators such as Sebastien Moreno and Olivier Hannaert as being indispensable to the success of his projects. He also speaks highly of Belgium's up-and-coming designers, including Nathalie Dewez in lighting and Diane Steverlynck in textiles.
Other Belgian interior and product designers he mentions are Xavier Lust, Alain Berteau and Sylvain Willenz. He particularly admires Elric Petit, one-third of the design trio Big Game, creators of 'very poetic objects'.