Jules Wabbes and the Modern Design of American Embassies

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe American postwar policy for the construction of embassies was shaped in accordance to a modernist design conception that fostered an image of the USA as a future-oriented country. The Foreign Buildings Office (FBO) of the State Department in Washington was responsible for the approval of plans both for new buildings and for interior design. Whereas the architects for the new buildings were based in America, this was not always the case for the interior designers. For instance, the Belgian Jules Wabbes (1919–74), interior designer, furniture creator, and businessman based in Brussels, was called upon to collaborate in the design of new interior spaces for several American diplomatic institutions, including the embassies in The Hague (The Netherlands), Rabat (Morocco), and London (UK). This article will, on the basis of new archival research, substantiate Wabbes's role and his relation with the FBO, focusing especially on the embassy in The Hague as a case study. The furniture that Wabbes provided was mostly based upon designs of Edward J. Wormley for Dunbar. We will argue that these designs, as well as Wabbes's further input as an interior designer, matched in many ways the architectural qualities of Marcel Breuer's design for the building, while at the same time responding to concerns of diplomatic staff about comfort and respectability. Wabbes and Wormley can thus both be considered to work in the line of what Kristina Wilson has labeled “livable modernism,” a style of interior decoration that upholds many modernist values (sobriety, simplicity, truth to materials) but combines them with traditional references (e.g. through the use of wood as a dominant material) and with meticulous craftsmanship.