Around the Ixelles Ponds, a refined dialogue unfolds between nature, architecture and art de vivre. Water features, rocks, fountains and carefully laid-out gardens form a distinctive setting in which the greenery of the Maelbeek valley and the surrounding built environment reinforce one another. Along the banks, townhouses and apartment buildings create a readable panorama of urban ambitions and housing ideals over time.
The district became an emblem of architectural innovation. Around 1900, Ernest Blerot and Ernest Delune built assertive Art Nouveau houses here, where elegance, craftsmanship and detail take centre stage. After the First World War, attention shifted towards comfort and modernity, as shown by René Ajou’s La Cascade. In the interwar period, Jean-Florian Collin and Stanislas Jasinski, among others, added a new vertical dimension with striking apartment buildings that permanently reshaped the landscape.
The ponds also attracted writers, artists and thinkers in search of calm and inspiration. The walk follows the water to the former La Cambre Abbey, where Henry van de Velde would later found La Cambre. The route thus links nature, housing and culture in a layered narrative that still shapes the identity of the neighbourhood.