Willy van der Meeren wardrobe Tubax Belgium 1952 yellow

Industrial designed wardrobe by Willy van der Meeren and manufactured by Tubax, Belgium 1952. Originally it was used in boarding schools, so not many of them are still around. It’s made of sturdy metal with teak side panels and has sliding doors – one in grey and the other in yellow. The nicely shaped handles are also made of teak wood. Overall a true modernist appearance. Inside, there’s a place to hang clothes on the left and three shelves on the right. It’s still in its original condition, so there’s some wear from its age.

Willy Van Der Meeren was born on July 7, 1923 in Lebbeke. Although he started studying medicine at the KU Leuven in 1942, he still chose to study Architecture at the Académie de Bruxelles the following year. But he could not settle there either, his architecture about architecture did not match that of the Académie and he continued his education at the Ter Kameren college of arts, where modernist ideas better suited his way of thinking. He wondered in 1948. Van Der Meeren can be considered the last representative of modernism in Belgium.

In 1964 he founded Atelier Alpha, which described the development of standardized building elements that could be assembled in different ways. It is in this context that the design for the Warotveld residential area must be seen. A well-known application of the industrialization of public housing is the CECA house, also known as the ECSC house, which he met with architect Léon Palm in the 1950s. That is a prefab house that could be built for about half the then usual price. An example is on the Bruul in Leuven.