van Buuren Gardens

Van Buuren Gardens cover roughly a hectare of parkland surrounding a former private residence in Uccle, one of the municipalities of Brussels. Few gardens of this modest size manage to combine an intimate, almost domestic scale with recognition as one of Europe's best-preserved Art Deco garden ensembles.

Where does this estate come from?

The house and its surrounding grounds were built between 1924 and 1928 for banker and art collector David Van Buuren and his wife, Alice Piette. They commissioned architects Léon Govaerts and Alexis Van Vaerenbergh, who gave the villa a form closely related to the Amsterdam School: geometric massing, brick façades and careful craftsmanship in every detail. The house on Avenue Léo Errera was never meant to be just a place to live — it was conceived as a total work of art, in which interiors, furniture, an art collection and the surrounding greenery were designed as one continuous statement.

How did the garden take shape?

Responsibility for the grounds went in 1925 to Jules Buyssens, one of the most respected Belgian landscape architects of the period. He gave the garden its structure of several distinct, thematically separate spaces, ranging from picturesque, loosely composed sections to more geometric areas that echo the Art Deco language of the house itself. Later work on the estate was carried out by René Pechère, a garden architect trained under Buyssens, who went on to leave a broader mark on landscape design across Brussels.

What can visitors expect while walking through it?

The park is divided into six clearly distinct zones, and moving between them feels almost like passing through separate chapters on twentieth-century garden design. One of the most recognisable sections is the so-called Picturesque Garden, which draws on the tradition of freely composed, naturalistic landscape. Elsewhere, visitors come across a labyrinth — an element rarely found in urban gardens of this size. Despite the limited area, the overall design was built to deliver several contrasting moods: from formal symmetry to deliberate, naturalistic disorder.

Why does the site now carry European heritage status?

The gardens underwent a thorough restoration that earned them the Europa Nostra Award in 2015, one of the most significant European recognitions for cultural heritage conservation. A few years later, in 2023, the estate became the first site in Belgium to be included in the European Route of Historic Gardens, confirming its importance well beyond the national level.

Can the gardens be visited together with the house?

Yes — the gardens form an integral part of the museum housed in the former Van Buuren residence, where visitors can also see the architecture, interiors and the art collection assembled by the couple. A walk through the park is usually paired with a tour of the house, which makes it easy to appreciate how consistently the whole estate was planned, from the furniture indoors to the layout of the paths outside.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly are the gardens located? In Uccle, a municipality of the Brussels region, on the grounds of the former Van Buuren family residence.

Who designed the garden? The main layout was created by Jules Buyssens, with further contributions from René Pechère.

How many distinct garden sections are there? Six, each with a different character, ranging from picturesque to geometric, including a labyrinth.

Does the site hold any official recognition? Yes — among others, the Europa Nostra Award for its restoration in 2015, and inclusion in the European Route of Historic Gardens in 2023.