79 XAVIER LUST. FORGING THE FUTURE OF DESIGN

The maestro of metals welcomes us into his Brussels home, the industrial space where he designs and exhibits his sheet metal creations. All for sale

‘Bureaux et Ateliers’ still crowns the entrance, written in bronze letters that shimmer in the autumn sun. «Come on, there’s more, I’ll show you». Belgian designer Xavier Lust pointed towards the ‘Imprimerie des Sciences’ sign above the door, then indicated the geometric façade of the small modernist building, alien-like among the classic frills of the surrounding nineteenth-century abodes. «The architectural blueprints, by a certain L. Homez, are from 1927. It was used as a print shop until the late 1980s. It’s strange because my paternal grandfather was a printer», Lust confided. «This house came to me almost without having to look for it, as if it were predestined». One needn’t be a fatalist to see that finding a house like this is a nice stroke of luck, right in the quarter where Lust was living already: Ixelles, just south of the heart of Brussels. He snatched up the property and moved in with his partner Emilie (a gallerist), Rosalie (Emilie’s daughter) and the newest addition to the family, little Noah (about two years old). Lust, born in 1969, has wanted a place like this for a lifetime: two storeys plus a spacious lower floor, large enough for the family and a showroom that’s all his, a gallery where he exhibits his most recent work and the bestsellers he produces. The two main elements - workshop and dwelling - have independent entrances, though they are joined in the back by a large open courtyard. Here, he’s quite at home: «It’s true, this place makes it possible to meet with clients and collectors, organise events and work closely with collaborators, but also to ‘unplug’ and spend time with Emilie and the kids». In the ground floor, Lust has even set up a photography studio, also lit by natural light coming from the courtyard. «In one of the few major renovations here, I wanted to eliminate the old domed skylights to free up space on the terrace and be able to display my work out in the open as well», he said, sitting down on PicNik, the light blue table with integrated benches at the centre of the courtyard. «Due to the heat this season, in the evening I like to lie down outdoors, over there in the corner on my Flow sofa and read, relax or practice yoga. In spring, I want to add a lot of plants to create a private urban oasis». Lust knows just what he wants, and the house is a true one man show. Furniture and lamps designed for some of the world’s most prestigious design companies (plenty of them Italian, including Driade, De Padova, Cerruti Baleri, Fiam, etc.) intermingle with limited editions for galleries like Nilufar, CarpentersWorkshop and Galerie du Passage, plotting out 25 years of an impressive career and a thousand ways to work with metal, from the 3-D shaped sheet metal (his signature) to cast bronze and even oxidised and perforated steel. The ‘metal magician’ has also designed, entirely on his own, the striking brass staircase that leads to the showroom. After all, the house is his test lab: «I always have lived surrounded by my designs; that way I can perfect them the second time around», he admitted. Even if the remodel in Ixelles is done, Lust can’t seem to sit still. Selected as one of the designers to transform the Gare du Nord railway station in Paris for the 2024 Olympics, he’s also creating a sculpture for the Proximus Towers in Brussels and even a show at the Ralph Pucci gallery in Los Angeles. «I like the excitement of new challenges. Today, for example, we were contacted by a shipyard to design a yacht. One of the great things about my job is being able to redo everything. Without limits in terms of scale or type of product