Moniek E. Bucquoye

STEAK WITH FRIES

The concept of restaurant Michel - which recently earned its first Michelin-star - forsakes the pettiness of fancy interior design.  Architect Koen Deprez endeavors to tell a personal story.  A story not about involvement, technology or creativity, but about semiotics and logic.  In his approach he simultaneously tackles the labyrinthine as well as the comprehensive aspects in a manner that is sometimes playful and at other times  strict, tactile and diaphanous.  The conceptualization is both tangible and functional, on the one hand immensely familiar, on the other hand fascinating and diverse.  Therein resides its uniqueness and obviousness.

In the Michel project Koen Deprez analyzes common images and products from the simple food culture in the same way as did Roland Barthes, the French philosopher (1915-1980).  He recognizes that what comes into perspective or is being touched by people not only finds its expression by means of language but also becomes pervaded with significance.  His conversations with leading chef Robert Van Landeghem taught him that in the culture of food the relationship between the person who gives the signal and the one who receives it becomes symbolically very strained.
By the way: semiotics in architecture is not new, but its interpretation in this context
- behind the façade of a fake Flemish farmhouse in the main square of Groot-Bijgaarden (near Brussels) - is quite exciting.  As a visitor you will experience that food is far too important to be trusted merely to the cook, something which does not mean that cooking has no territory of its own or that it does not abide by its own laws!
It was Deprez's first restaurant concept and he had mixed feelings about it.  Sometimes he felt depressed, sometimes exhilarated, for he does not look at a restaurant as a sequence of  rooms and corridors, but an environmental organism for food artists and their visitors, whose relationship is conditioned by the restaurant and is in no way indifferent to the type of setting.  When talking about Michel we do not refer to a classic food temple but  rather to a shrine where lavishness is integrated within a meaningful system, a space where the slowness of time is palpable.  After its measurements were taken and its stability checked,  the building was completely stripped - all dull and useless corners, as well as outbuildings and odds and ends, were disposed of.  It only took six weeks to reorganize the whole setting.

THE LACE FLIRTATION

 In the development of his concept, Deprez was not only inspired by the ambience of  yesteryear's Parisian salons, but above all by the text 'Le bifteck et  les frites' and the significance of meat in all its rawness, nobility and highest quality as seen in the papal purple of 'bloody' meat - cooked 'bleu' - or the sampling and carving of meat on the sacrificial altar.  He also very subtly managed to combine the noble art of serving and being served by way of the paper lace motive in two and three dimensional realizations.  Paper lacework carries an ancient tradition; it is still available in various shapes and dimensions.  In the context of a restaurant it stands for a special symbol of cleanliness, thoroughness, respect and service.  With its delicate and ethereal designs it refers not only to a refined ornamentation but is also related to kitsch and dandyism.
Once you are past the very ordinary front door, there comes the transition.  In the reception hall stands a sober counter whose color announces the upcoming refinement.  A small vertical slit in the reception doorway allows the attentive visitor a minimal glance into the restaurant.  A floating hanging cupboard holds cutlery, china and coats and also functions as a space divider in the lounge. 
Snow-white upholstered Louis XVI chairs and extremely sober solid oak low serving tables furnish the dimly lit area.  The oak floor curling up into a solid oak wall fully draws the attention to a delicately engineered lace motive, resembling a dinner-tray in space. Its paper original graces the wall while the blow-up constitutes a work of art on its own.  On the ceiling the lace work is closed off with a mauve wall-panel of silk velvet.  The panel as well as the rectangular settees display a tidy knot upholstery - Chesterfield style.  The knot work at once reflects the dandyish character of the designer and the subdued tranquillity of a bourgeois drawing room.  The discreet atmosphere very coherently pervades the whole restaurant and is tangible at different levels: table setting, waiters' flow, choice of materials. 

MEAT AS MYTH

The visitor is directed to the dining area through a purple drape of silk velvet.  The drape mysteriously demarcates the eating space, while a brass-riveted wall enhances the special atmosphere of the room.  A path of granite leads up to what looks like an altar and is used as a serving block to carve meat, to flambé dishes …  Although quite present because of its shape, the block vanishes within the setting, as do the two side-tables holding silverware and other utensils.
The visitor feels that Koen Deprez's approach to interior design is not exclusively artistic and aesthetic, but that he considers it a phenomenon of social and cultural value as well.  His sign system is multi-layered and understandable.  Apart from a few decorative frivolities, he bestows a great deal of attention upon the story of real interior design, which in the same way as art - if it is to be significant - needs to be linked to experience.  In the dining area perpendicular to the altar and lengthwise in the restaurant, floats a large padded purple ovoid - a gaping wound in the ceiling. On each side of the monumental acoustic cushion, a brass indentation shows the word Mythologies referring to Barthes' work.  The round tables are disposed in such a way that every party will be able to enjoy perfect privacy while the granite path indicates a section for groups or larger tables.  The back and seat of the beech-wood chairs are upholstered in black and white and delicately trimmed.  On the outside, the cream-colored curtains are lined with the same black and white fabric used for upholstering the chairs.  Both fabrics have acoustic and dimming qualities, and were exclusively woven for Michel; they come from the Patrick Ponseele collection.  All technical components such as floor heating, emergency lighting and alarm system are built-in.  Except for the large black ERCO lighting on the columns on both sides of the serving tables, there is hardly a disturbing element to be found.  Details such as the embroidered R on the mauve hanging, the black and white combination on the chairs, the round cutout motifs in the lampshades projecting a lacy effect on the ceiling, the oak serving blocks, the supporting columns with their rivets, the colors of the painted walls, all reinforce the special ambience and setting. They all support the refinement and the references Deprez wished to integrate.
Interior designers who gradually renounce their own individuality to bow to the demands of the market quite often lose themselves in outdated or pseudo-stylish concepts.
The crucial contradiction for the designer resides in the intense urge to reconcile performance with the pressure to make his concept more accessible, more popular or practical than required by its actual complexity. 
For me, an interior designer is first and foremost a person who - for whatever reasons -takes a very individual stand towards the world and its phenomena.  Particularly when considered from this perspective the concept of restaurant Michel truly is a great achievement.