Vincent Van Duysen transforms 19th-century convent into Antwerp's August hotel
The ascetic living quarters of 19th-century nuns is now host to the August hotel, which features contemporary pared-back interiors developed by Vincent Van Duysen.
Decked out in an array of simple and warm materials, August has been designed by locally based Vincent Van Duysen so that guests "can still sense the sober, understated life of the convent nuns".
The hotel is located in Het Groen Kwartier ? which translates as The Green Quarter in English ? an eight-hectare region of Antwerp that's been entirely pedestrianised.
At its centre is a sprawling red-brick military hospital where injured soldiers were tended to by Augustinian nuns during the 1800s. The site also functioned as a hospital during world war two.
Five buildings on the site and the chapel have been converted to accommodate August and its amenities.
"[Our] strategy in turning the hidden gem and its gardens into August was first and foremost to respect the historical DNA of the site," said Van Duysen.
"The hotel is a place where you feel calm and at home without neglecting the fact that you are in a place that was sacred."
"We have fully considered the past as being a beautiful gift to keep and reinterpret what we have in a modern way," he continued.
The building where the nuns would formerly retreat to sleep now accommodates 44 guest rooms.
Each one has been completed with white walls and sage-green joinery. Other than a selection of lamps by Italian brand Flos, the d...
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