我们相信，家是您灵魂的个性化表达。家是你理想生活方式的呈现，透露着你的品味、观点和与这个世界的关系。—Axel Vervoordt
Our philosophy is a belief that a home should be a personal expression of your soul. It should represent the way you want to live, the ideas that define your tastes, perspectives, and connections to the world.
现年72岁的Axel Vervoordt身材高大，举止优雅，脸上带着安详的微笑，他可能是世界上最重要的时尚引领者之一。但他对“风格”兴趣不大，至少目前是这样定义的，因为本质上，Vervoordt是一个形而上学者。对存在的本质、时间和空间的概念的探索是他的主要动力；他通过对物品和室内的富有灵感的安排来表达自己的观点。对一些人来说，在材料中表达崇高似乎是矛盾的，但Vervoordt相信，就像禅宗那样，真理可以包含在悖论和模棱两可中。客户可能会去找他，希望找到一个漂亮的古董大衣橱，或者帮他翻修和装饰一座18世纪的别墅，但他们得到的最有价值的服务，是他高度进化但相当基本的生活哲学的指导。
Axel Vervoordt, tall and elegant, with a serene smile, this 72-year-old may be one of the world’s foremost tastemakers. Yet he has little interest in “style,” at least as it is currently defined, because essentially, Vervoordt is a metaphysician. Inquiries into the nature of being and concepts of time and space are what most compel him; he conveys his views through his inspired arrangements of objects and interiors. To some, expressing the lofty in the material might seem contradictory, but Vervoordt believes that, as in a Zen koan, truth can be contained in paradox and ambiguity. Clients may go to him in search of a splendid antique armoire or for help renovating and furnishing an 18th-century villa, but the most valuable service they receive is instruction in his highly evolved yet quite fundamental philosophy of living.
Axel Vervoordt于1947年出生在安特卫普，他的父亲是个商人，母亲同样有教养，在艺术家和知识分子的陪伴下茁壮成长。上世纪60年代初，他的母亲率先保护了安特卫普历史悠久的老城区Vlaeykensgang，这里是画家Anthony Van Dyck和Jacob Jordaens的出生地。她会买下一栋建筑，恢复它的中世纪风格，然后把它租给艺术家们，让社区充满生气。在进行这些项目时，她得到了儿子的帮助，Axel Vervoordt于从小就表现出一种艺术爱好，比如把卧室的窗户刷成类似彩色玻璃的颜色。这些手工翻修在Vervoordt点燃了对古老和真实的热爱，以及对中世纪、文艺复兴和巴洛克的迷恋。
Vervoordt was born in Antwerp in 1947 to a worldly father who made his living trading horses and an equally cultivated mother who thrived on the company of artists and intellectuals. In the early 1960s, she pioneered the conservation of the Vlaeykensgang, Antwerp’s historic old quarter, birthplace of the painters Anthony Van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens. She would buy a building, restore its medieval character, then rent it to artists to enliven the neighborhood. In pursuing these projects, she enlisted the help of her son, who from an early age demonstrated an artistic bent, painting his bedroom windows, for example, to resemble stained glass. These hands-on renovations kindled in Vervoordt a love of the old and authentic and a fascination with the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque.
年轻的Vervoordt卷入了他父母的所有活动，甚至他们的社交活动。在这段时间里，他形成了后来成为他的标志性的反主流购买行为。Vervoordt不认为这是一个潜在的职业，他去了大学学习经济学。然而，他很快就厌倦了，离开学校去服兵役。在军队服役期间，他继续购买艺术品和古董——现在不仅为他自己，也为客户购买，有时还会在他们家里摆放这些物品。但直到21岁时，他以2400美元的价格买下了一幅1948年的马格利特(Magritte)画作《回忆录》(La memoire)，并设法拿到了5万美元，他才决定“我的热情和爱好将成为我一生的事业”。
The young Vervoordt got swept up in all his parents’ activities, even their socializing. Their sophisticated friends became his. During this period he developed what would become his trademark practice of purchasing against the prevailing fashion. Vervoordt didn’t consider this avocation a potential profession and went off to university to study economics. He was soon bored, however, and left school to perform his national service in the army. While in the military, he continued buying art and antiques — now for clients as well as himself, sometimes arranging the items in their homes. But it was only when, at age 21, he managed to get $50,000 for a 1948 Magritte painting, La mémoire, for which he’d paid $2,400 that he decided “my passion and my hobby would become my life’s work.”
对他影响最大的是那些有艺术天分的人。是比利时画家杰夫·弗海因将他引入了“零”运动，并使他获得了一种全新的观察方式。“一个人看待事物的方式是最重要的，”Vervoordt回忆道。“你的眼睛一定有什么感觉。艺术家还教他认识到“空”是“本质显现”的地方，在这里没有什么意味着一切。这种审美上的觉醒促使Vervoordt去探索道教、禅宗和量子物理学。从这些研究中产生的艺术和生活哲学，他称之为volledig，翻译过来就是“空虚的充实”。
As important as friendships have been to Vervoordt, none have influenced him as much as those with artists. It was the Belgian painter Jef Verheyen who introduced him to the Zero movement — and to a fresh manner of seeing. “The way one looks at things is of the utmost importance,” Vervoordt recalls him explaining. “You must feel something with your eyes.” The artist also taught him to recognize emptiness as the place where “the essence reveals itself, where nothing means everything.” This aesthetic awakening led Vervoordt to explore Taoism and Zen Buddhism, as well as quantum physics. The philosophy of art and life that emerged from these studies, he calls volledig which translates as “the fullness of emptiness.”
在20世纪70年代早期，Vervoordt开始前往泰国、柬埔寨和日本进行采购之旅。佛教艺术的宁静和寺庙宁静的建筑空间与他产生了深刻的共鸣。在他的设计对话中，他已经在乡村风格和巴洛克风格的家具之间，在古代雕塑和现代绘画之间玩弄美学的两极。现在，他认识到与东方物体进行类似对话的潜力。事实上，他发现自己对侘寂有一种强烈的亲和感，那是一种禅宗观念，认为真正的美是不完美的、不完整的和无常的——换句话说，美就像生命一样易逝。
During the early 1970s, Vervoordt began making buying trips to Thailand, Cambodia and Japan. The stillness of the Buddhist art and the serene architectural spaces of the temples resonated deeply with him. He had already been playing with aesthetic polarities in his design dialogues between rustic and Baroque furnishings and between ancient statuary and modern paintings. Now he recognized the potential for creating analogous conversations with Eastern objects. In fact, he found he had a strong affinity for wabi, the Zen notion that true beauty is imperfect, incomplete and impermanent — in other words, as evanescent as life.
这段上世纪70年代的经历，蕴含着公司今天仍在处处贯彻的核心精神：
The formative experiences in the 1970s embody key elements of the company’s vision that exist in everything we do:
对建筑和纯粹比例的尊重
Respect for architecture and the purity of proportions
寻找美和品质的不懈热忱
Passion for discovery and the endless search for beauty and quality
对融汇过去、现在和未来的一贯追求
On-going quest to uncover harmony between the past, present, and future
分享经验、知识和灵感的开放胸怀
Spirit of openness to share experiences, knowledge, and inspiration
活在艺术中的经典理念
Timeless philosophy for living with art
Axel Vervoordt公司活跃于艺术、室内装潢与设计领域。自创立伊始，公司就是一个家族企业——阿塞尔、梅、他们的儿子鲍尔斯和迪克及一支100人左右的团队共同投身于公司的日常运营工作中。在安特卫普初创后的五十年里，公司搬迁了两次。1986年，维伍德一家和公司搬去了格拉芬威索城堡。1999年，公司搬来了现在位于维纳海姆运河旁的总部，由一个旧工业区翻修而来，变身为融合了文化、商业和住宅的新家，艺术、设计和建筑在此欣欣向荣。
The Axel Vervoordt Company is active in the fields of art and interiors & design. From the start, it's always been a family-led business — Axel, May, and their sons Boris and Dick are active in the daily operations with our team of about 100 collaborators. During the 50 years that followed the beginning in Antwerp, the company relocated twice. In 1986, the family and company moved to the Castle of ‘s-Gravenwezel. In 1999, the company moved to its current headquarters at Kanaal in Wijnegem, a converted industrial site that blends a cultural, commercial, and residential community to create a new home for art, design, and architecture.
Axel & May Vervoordt 基金会成立于2008年。基金会受其创立者的集体委托，以保管艺术藏品、实现长远观赏价值为己任，行使学术支持、艺术赞助和活动策划等职能。
The Axel & May Vervoordt Foundation was established in 2008. The foundation is the custodian for the collection of its founders and its mission is to preserve the art collection’s integrity for future generations, while engaging in academic, sponsorship, and curatorial activities.
Axel Vervoordt每年都在世界各地完成大量内部设计项目，规模有大有小。完整的服务团队配备了艺术史、建筑、设计、项目管理、修复、物流后勤和各个相关学科的专家。除提供专业翻修服务之外，Axel Vervoordt还在工作室里造出许多原创家具。家居系列包括沙发、桌椅、家具和物件。
Axel Vervoordt’s practice includes completing many interior design projects — both small and large scale — per year all over the world. The full-service team includes talented experts with knowledge in art history, architecture, design, project management, restoration, logistics, and many other disciplines. Axel Vervoordt create many original furniture pieces in our workshops, in addition to providing expert restoration services. Their Home Collection includes sofas, chairs, tables, furniture and objects.
Axel Vervoordt认为家是一个人与亲友共享私密时光的空间，应该能给人以疗愈和滋养。最重要的是，家能予人启迪，令人快乐。通常来说，在设计家居时的每一个决策都基于对快乐的追求。
The spaces where people share private experiences with family and friends should restore and give energy. Above all, home is an enlightening space that makes people happy. Often, creating a home means searching for this emotion in every decision that’s made.
Axel Vervoordt追求家居设计的浑然天成，仿佛它一贯如此。对待每个项目，他们都怀有一种开放灵活的态度。灵感和创意随客户的要求一同演变。他们挑战彼此，以实现对项目更透彻的理解，交付最出色的结果。这样的合作氛围是友谊生长的最佳土壤，因此许多客户都成为了我们毕生的好友。
Axel Vervoordt create homes that feel as if they’ve always existed. A trademark is the ability to approach every project with a spirit of evolution. Ideas evolve along with their clients. They challenge each other to understand the project and deliver the highest results. It’s this collaboration that creates a friendship and it’s a reason why many of clients are friends for life.
创造价值的艺术在于给物品一个更好的空间。Axel Vervoordt所从事的工作，是帮助艺术品、物件、家具、古董和他们的原创设计找到属于它们自己的家。这种探寻和发现是Axel Vervoordt最为看重的责任。
The art of creating value is giving a better place to things. Axel Vervoordt is engaged in a process to help art, objects, furniture, antiques, and their original designs find their true home. Discovery has always been the most important aspect for them.
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