When you wanted to buy exclusive clothing in the 1930s, you could visit Haute Couture Rosa, a discreet boutique in an architectural masterpiece by the waterside in Ghent. Today it isn’t a boutique anymore and unfortunately you can’t visit the architectural masterpiece on the inside, but the facade is worth a detour when you want to see nice architecture.

I often come by this house and it’s easy to imagine how life was on the inside when this was built in 1934. Edmond and Rosa Van Waes commissioned architect Gaston Eysselinck to build a house inspired by a ship. With a little use of imagination you can see the house glide on the water with the two love birds on top. Edmond as Jack Dawson with his own Rose living their own Titanic love story.

Rosa was doing her thing in fashion at the ground level in an exclusive setting and Edmond was an inventor. The legend goes that he invented the kicker table, also known as table football. According to other sources the Frenchman Lucien Rosengart is said to have invented the game. Whatever story may be true, for us Edmond is the true inventor, that speaks.

The couple didn’t live here that long, only 7 years. Edmond was killed in one of the concentration camps during World War II due to his actions against the Nazi regime. Later, the building got many other owners. After a necessary restoration, it’s been protected since 2005, standing proudly on the waterside.