“We got a Turell at home"

In a new enclave outside of Antwerp, smart new apartments come complete with a dazzling array of contemporary art on their doorstep, says Caroline Roux.

Twenty years ago, a series of abandoned brewery buildings sat beside the Albert Canal, several empty miles from Antwerp’s city centre. Apart from a short smattering of suburban villas, the landscape was uninterrupted lowland flatness and very big skies. There was not much to love.

But Axel Vervoordt, the wealthy Belgian art collector, aesthete, dealer and realtor rolled into one, has a tendency to see things differently. “This is industrial architecture,” he declared, when I met him there at the end of last year. “It is made to serve, whether...

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