Listing Owner
Member Since 2023
Listing Owner
Member Since 2023
We both have a background in Anthropology and Asian Studies (linguistics, languages, cultures) - which is why we fell for this house in 2005, when we returned to Belgium after prolonged stays in India (Delhi, Bodhgaya), the Middle East (Damascus), and the Arabian Gulf (Muscat). Bayt al-Andalus (The Andalusian Mansion) is a house with a remarkable history. Commissioned in 1909 by a renowned Antwerpian author and editor (Joseph Buerbaum) in what was then a visionary garden city suburb, the design of its interior and gardens was given as a playground to the experimental Orientalist architect Jef Huygh (Prix de Rome 1911) - who turned the backside salons and boudoirs into Almohad palace rooms inspired by the Alhambra, and the walled garden into a faux copy of what the young Huygh had witnessed in Granada's Generalife palace. We bought the house in 2005. It took us ten years (spent on ladders redoing Almohad design motifs and Arabic inscriptions) to restore it to its former glory. It was a labor of love, that we continued later in other rooms with creative outbursts of paintwork inspired by Gaudi's Barcelona. For fifteen years we lived and worked in the house: studying, reading, writing, painting, playing music, gardening, and bringing up a child. At one time we had a rooftop farm with vegetable beds and chickens. We experimented with organic gardening and started a green revolution in the street - which is now one of the greenest streets in the whole of Antwerp. The house was also our offices and a venue for concerts, conferences, fashion shows, and photoshoots - and a few times it served as the set of a film. We hosted guest lecturers and facilitators from all over the world, and used the top-floor meeting room as a multi-functional workshop space and art cinema. We currently live in Singapore, and we cherish the idea that Bayt al-Andalus, still housing most of the original furniture and a library with some 20,000 books (mostly on Asian Studies), is being loved by kindred souls and like-minded people. Since it has served as our own "writing retreat" for so many years, it might as well serve as yours. Since it ignited us to so many creative outbursts, it might as well do the same to you. We offer two packages: The Lavender Room and The Green Room. For each package you have your own private room to retreat into - and you share our former training room as a shared working space, a bathroom with walk-in shower, the kitchen, two en-suite downstairs Alhambra-like parlors (where you can dine and sit together), and the garden. You are currently viewing the Lavender Room. For The Green Room, copy/paste this link into your browser: https://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/rental/158748 The Lavender Room is only one floor up from the ground floor. It is special for its quietness and (in the summer) the fragrance of the chestnut trees in the surrounding gardens, It has an enormous canopy bed (imported from an antique shop in Jaipur), uniquely crafted handpainted doors, and a washbasin against Indian glass tiling. Optionally (and if you are lucky) you can take both rooms and it will be as if the house is yours entirely.
From July 1, 2024 until December 31, 2025
2 Months | Dates are flexible for this listing
Comments: Very flexible, bi-weekly (EUR 550) or monthly (EUR 850) - negotiable. The house breathes the old manor atmosphere, is fully furnished, and contains a large Asia Studies Library..
University of Antwerp
Berchem
Breda | Antwerp | Eindhoven | Mechelen | Brussels
Comments: Unique heritage house with listed neo-Moorish orientalist interior and Almohad-style walled back-garden. Very cosy, friendly and green neighbourhood, train, tram, shared bicycles, 10 minutes from downtown Antwerp and only 30 minutes from Brussels.
Comments: Utilities at EUR 150 per month, cleaning (EUR 50) negotiable. All is flexible as per a contract agreed made together. There is just one other room in the house rented out (listing #158748). Take the two rooms = get the house all for yourself
Comments: The house is so well located that you do not need a car. If you have a car, we have a reserved parking place in an underground garage for it at 5 minutes walk.
Furnished
Wi-Fi
Balcony or Patio
Garden
Dedicated Parking
Backyard
Stairs
Security System
Oven
Stove
Microwave
Refrigerator
Dishwasher
Washer
Dryer
Comments: Antique handmade kingsize beds imported from Jaipur. Hybrid neo-orientalist architecture by Jef Huygh (Prix de Rome 2011). Salons and patio garden inspired by the Alhambra and Generalife palaces. House is hidden behind a giant fig tree from Damascus.
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Listing Owner
Member Since 2023
Listing Owner
Member Since 2023
Comments: Bayt al-Andalus Lavender Room: One of two large bedrooms with kingssize bed, workspace, and washbasin. Shared: co-working space with dining and lounge corners, bathroom with shower, kitchen, garden.