(b Brussels, 15 Sept 1863; d Antwerp, 6 March 1927). Belgian architect. He began his studies at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, studying monumental architecture in the evenings while working by day. His marriage to the daughter of the architect J.-B. Vereecken introduced him to wealthy bourgeois circles where he found most of his clients. Between 1894 and 1906 he took part in the construction of the Zurenborg district of Antwerp, begun at the instigation of Senator John Cogels, where he built 25 houses for the Société Anonyme pour la Construction du Quartier Est d’Anvers. This group of buildings constitutes one of the city’s architectural curiosities: it is dominated by historicism, particularly in the double residence Euterpia (1906) that is an example of neo-Greek bravura, but Bascourt also developed an original Art Nouveau style there, marked by echoes of Arabian architecture. His own house (1902; destr. 1986) in Antwerp was conceived in the spirit of the work of John Soane, designed around a central hall giving on to rooms that were each furnished and decorated in a different style. He built several mansions, office blocks and industrial buildings in Antwerp between 1904 and 1921. He was also responsible for the community centre (1914–20) at Wilrijck, which he built following a competition. Bascourt was an extremely prolific architect with an inventive spirit that enabled him to make an important contribution to eclectic architecture in Belgium and to give a very personal interpretation of Art Nouveau.

• Bascourt, Joseph
  • Belgium, §II, 5: Architecture, after c 1890