Leon Stynen

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} {{short description|Belgian architect}} {{Infobox architect | name = Leon Stynen | native_name =Léon Stynen | image = Leon Stynen.jpeg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Léon Stynen | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date|1899|07|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Antwerp, Belgium | death_date = {{Death date and age|1990|05|13|1899|07|15|df=y}} | death_place = | nationality =  | other_names = | alma_mater = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | awards = | practice =  | significant_buildings = | significant_projects = | significant_design = | signature = | website =  | embedded =  }}

'''Léon Stynen''' (15 July 1899 – 13 May 1990) was a Belgian architect, urban planner and designer, from Antwerp. Some of his buildings have been categorized as "refined" Brutalist architecture and modern architecture. He has been called one of Belgium's greatest architects of the 20th century.<ref name="Winston"/>

== Early life == thumb|Stynen's contest-winning war memorial: Herdenkingsmonument

His father was sculptor and designer Jean-Baptiste Stynen. In 1921 Leon Stynen graduated from the National Higher Institute in Antwerp. Also in 1921, Stynen won a competition to design a war monument in Knokke.<ref name="Liu"/>

The contest-winning memorial Stynen designed (Herdenkingsmonument 1914–1918) was to commemorate the World War I veterans from Knokke.<ref name="Knokke"/> A total of 16 designs were submitted and Stynen's was accepted. He collaborated with a sculptor named Guillaume Dumont to make the monument. There is a plaque affixed to the monument on which Dumont's name is misspelled "Dupont".<ref name="onroerenderfgoed"/> The monument features four standing figures representing soldiers: they lean against a center column. The sculpture was inaugurated 11 June 1922.<ref name="Knokke"/>

== Career ==

Stynen was active designing buildings from the 1920s to the 1970s. He was also an educator who influenced the architects from Belgium. In 1963 he was made the first president of Belgium's Order of Architects.<ref name="Buxton"/> He was called one of Belgium's greatest architects, and there are many buildings in Flanders which were designed by Stynen, and they still exist to display the Modern architecture style.<ref name="Winston"/>

In the 1920s Stynen designed four casinos in Belgium. The first was the Knokke Casino. He designed the casino in the style of Le Corbusier. In designing the casino Stynen also was influenced by his background n Beaux-Arts architecture and the Art Deco movement.<ref name="Winston"/>

He experimented with different styles of architecture and eventually settled on Modernism. By the 1930s he was a respected architect in Belgium.<ref name="about"/> In 1939 he was asked to work with Henry van de Velde and Victor Bourgeois to design the Belgian pavilion for the 1939 New York World's Fair.<ref name="vai"/> The building was an Avant-garde example of Modernist architecture. The structure was supposed to be disassembled and returned to Belgium after the fair, but as a result of the 1940 German invasion of Belgium the building remained in the United States. Twenty-seven different institutions wanted the building but it was granted to Virginia Union University.<ref name="Hylton"/>

In 1963, he experimented with a technique that allowed a cantilevered facade on the BP-building Antwerp. All of the floors and the facade of the building are held up with steel cables and supported from the rooftop beams. The building still stands today.<ref name="Winston"/>

In 1968 Stynen and Paul De Meyer's designed Church of Sint-Rita in Harelbeke. It was called an example of Brutalist architecture. The building looks like a pyramid from the outside and inside there is an entirely open space with a skylight.<ref name="Buxton"/>

== Gallery ==

<gallery> File:Léon Stynen De Zonnewijzer Antwerpen (7325) 29-07-2019 10-32-27.jpg|The sundial at the Mechelsesteenweg in Antwerp File:Léon Stynen Parkwijk Casablanca Kessel-Lo 16-11-2018 12-05-20.jpg|King Albert building of the Park District Casablanca in Kessel-Lo File:Léon Stynen Parkwijk Casablanca Kessel-Lo 16-11-2018 12-07-11.jpg|King Albert building of the Park District Casablanca in Kessel-Lo Sint-Ritakerk te Harelbeke - vormen.jpg| Sint Ritakerk in Harelbeke File:Léon Stynen Basisschool Heffel Kessel-Lo 16-11-2018 11-17-06.jpg|Heffel primary school in Kessel-Lo File:Léon Stynen Basisschool Heffel Kessel-Lo 16-11-2018 11-27-27.jpg|Heffel primary school in Kessel-Lo File:Léon Stynen Kantoorgebouw E.B.E.S. Mechelsesteenweg 271-273 Antwerpen (7329) 29-07-2019 10-23-06.jpg|Former EBES building in Antwerp File:DeSingel, Antwerpen 01.jpg|DeSingel in Antwerp File:Léon Stynen BP-building Antwerpen (6958) 29-07-2019 12-29-09.jpg|Léon Stynen BP-building Antwerp File:Financietoren.jpg|Finance Tower in Brussels </gallery>

== Books about Leon Stynen == {{refbegin}} *{{Cite book| title = Léon Stynen | trans-title = A Life of Architecture (1899-1990) | last = Laureys | first = Dirk | year = 2018 | publisher = Vlaams Architectuurinstituut | location = Antwerp, Belgium | language = de | isbn = 978-9492567116 |ref=none }} {{refend}}

== References == {{commons}} <references>

<ref name="Hylton">{{cite book |last1=Hylton |first1=Raymond |title=Virginia Union University |date=2014 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |location=Charleston, South Carolina |isbn=978-1-4671-2248-1 |pages=52–54 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p9c8BQAAQBAJ&dq=Charles+Thaddeus+Russell+architect&pg=PA54 |access-date=6 January 2022 |archive-date=26 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226161100/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Virginia_Union_University/p9c8BQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Charles+Thaddeus+Russell+architect&pg=PA54&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="vai">{{cite web |title=Stynen2018 |url=https://www.vai.be/en/projects/stynen2018 |website=vai |publisher=Flanders Architecture Institute |access-date=8 January 2022 |archive-date=8 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108215419/https://www.vai.be/en/projects/stynen2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="about">{{cite web |title=More about Léon Stynen (1899-1990) |url=https://www.architectuurarchiefvlaanderen.be/nl/artikel/meer-over-leon-stynen-1899-1990 |website=architectuurarchiefvlaanderen |publisher=architectuur archiefvlaanderen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181114141540/https://www.architectuurarchiefvlaanderen.be/nl/artikel/meer-over-leon-stynen-1899-1990 |access-date=8 January 2022|archive-date=14 November 2018 }}</ref> <ref name="Buxton">{{cite news |last1=Buxton |first1=Pamela |title=A taste of Belgian brutalism |url=https://www.ribaj.com/culture/leon-stynen-brutalism-on-a-human-scale-silver-building-review |access-date=6 January 2022 |publisher=RIBA 1834 Ltd. |date=26 June 2019 |archive-date=6 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106172844/https://www.ribaj.com/culture/leon-stynen-brutalism-on-a-human-scale-silver-building-review |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="Knokke">{{cite web |title=Memorial To The Fallen Knokke 1914-1918 - Leon Stynen |url=https://www.myknokke-heist.be/nl/art-city/gedenkteken-gesneuvelden-knokke-1914-1918-leon-stynen |website=My Knokke |date=2 July 2021 |access-date=6 January 2022 |archive-date=6 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106212453/https://www.myknokke-heist.be/nl/art-city/gedenkteken-gesneuvelden-knokke-1914-1918-leon-stynen |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="onroerenderfgoed">{{cite web |title=Commemorative column military victims of the First World War |url=https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/58640 |website=onroerenderfgoed |publisher=Flanders imagination works |access-date=9 January 2022 |archive-date=9 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109040803/https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/58640 |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="Liu">{{cite news |last1=Liu |first1=Emerald |title=Casino Royale: Stynen's Unrealized Sculpture Garden |url=https://drawingmatter.org/casino-royale-stynens-unrealized-sculpture-garden/ |access-date=6 January 2022 |publisher=Drawing Matter |date=30 March 2021 |archive-date=6 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106191135/https://drawingmatter.org/casino-royale-stynens-unrealized-sculpture-garden/ |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="Winston">{{cite news |last1=Winston |first1=Anna |title=Five buildings by Belgian architect Léon Stynen that are worth visiting |url=https://www.dezeen.com/2019/01/10/leon-stynen-architecture-belgium/ |access-date=6 January 2022 |publisher=Dezeen Magazine |date=10 January 2019 |archive-date=29 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229183813/https://www.dezeen.com/2019/01/10/leon-stynen-architecture-belgium/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

</references> {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Stynen, Leon}} Category:1899 births Category:1990 deaths Category:Architects from Antwerp Category:20th-century Belgian architects Category:Modernist architects Category:Brutalist architects