André Verroken

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

André Verrokken (May 21, 1939 – April 5, 2020) was a Flemish Belgian furniture designer and interior architect. He grew up in the Flemish Ardennes and trained as a furniture maker like his father. After marrying Françoise Willecomme, he moved to Brussels to study at the Sint-Lucas School of Architecture and become an interior designer. He and Françoise had three children: Hendrik, Jan and Inge.

From 1967 to 1968 he taught Interior Architecture at the Imelda Institute in Brussels. He expanded his practice from his home and office in Schaerbeek in 1968. In 1969 he designed seating for Spectrum in the Netherlands and met Martin Visser, who became his first major teacher. He also befriended the constructivist painter Marcel-Henri Verdren.

In 1983 he moved to Ghent with his partner Arlette Gesquière and started making visual work related to his furniture. He helped found the Association of Flemish Designers (VVVO) in 1983–1984, serving as managing director. In 1985 he befriended Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, a collaboration that led to a posthumous Chillida-Verrokken exhibition in 2007.

Later he moved to Maarkedal, turning a small warehouse into a design studio and continuing to design furniture and visual works. In 2002 he received the Henry van de Velde Prize for Career. In 2016 Maarkedal’s council created a Special Prize André Verrokken, awarded in 2017 as part of Z+.

Notable works include the Centipede storage box (1988), the Homage to Eduardo Chillida table (1994), and the Kontener case (1995), which won a bronze medal in Japan in 1996. From 1980 to 1995 he remained active as a pure furniture designer, continually innovating.

Verrokken is remembered for combining function with meaning, producing sober yet warm pieces that are at once furniture and art with a poetic quality. He died in Ronse, Belgium, on April 5, 2020, at age 80.