Trained at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts, architect Charles Van Nueten became a major figure in Belgian modernism. He designed the planetarium for the 1935 World’s Fair and the Coppens House in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre in 1936. A few years earlier, in 1930, he built the Barbier House in Laeken. Behind the elegant white-rendered façade, originally almost entirely tiled, lies a solid reinforced concrete structure. Inside, the architect’s intelligent and elegant design is visible throughout, with a refined play of rounded and angular forms and an often surprising attention to detail. Original parquet flooring, several Art Deco stained-glass windows and remarkable woodwork in the balustrades and doors can still be admired. The house also offers an impressive view of the Donderberg, now a protected haven of biodiversity.