The diversity and the specificity of the activities of Wiels, taking place in such a remarkable building, make it a unique institution of contemporary art in Europe. Its strategic geographic position also creates a new point of reference and attraction to Brussels, both for the local and international audiences. In addition, the project helps foster the economic and cultural revivals of its immediate neighbourhood and of the city of Brussels in general. In this regard, the historical brew hall was refurbished to accommodate a café - restaurant and a library, a cinema, an audiovisual laboratory and a panoramic rooftop terrace, which make Wiels not only a cultural centre, but also a welcoming space and essential stop on a visit to Brussels.

Lambert Wielemans married Constance-Ida Ceuppens on 14 November 1838. The couple established the Wielemans-Ceuppens dynasty, they would manage the brewery until the 1980’s. After having taken over a bakery operation without much success, they started trading cloth. Business went well and the couple wanted to extend their activities. In 1862, Lambert Wielemans bought a beer business from his brother-in-law. Although they did not manufacture their own product at the time, this date nonetheless marks the beginning of the Wielemans brewing activities.

In 1868, with assistance from her children, Constance-Ida Ceuppens, then widowed for five years, began producing and brewing the family's own beer. For about ten years, the Wielemans leased the Roche-Soyez brewery, located in the centre of Brussels on rue Terre-Neuve. Business flourished and the premises rapidly became too cramped.

In 1879, the Wielemans brothers (Edouard, Prosper, André) bought a large, marshy property in the countryside of Forest on which to build their new brewery. It was fitted out with a mash tun, four steam boilers, a meal oven, tuns for boiling and storage, and warehouses. In 1882, a branch line linked the factory to the railroad, thereby enabling the exportation of beer to the provinces. The brewery comprised 5,100 square meters of built-up land plus Edouard's and Prosper’s houses which were built on the site. On May 3, 1883, Constance-Ida Ceuppens died and the three brothers decided to continue the business, while maintaining the “Wielemans-Ceuppens” name in memory of their mother.


In 1884, the Wielemans brothers returned from a visit to German and Austrian breweries, and began producing the low fermentation beers which were expected to yield good sales turnover in Belgium. Thus the dark beers and the lambics were gradually replaced by Pils and Munich-type beers. The quality of their beers was rewarded, in particular by the International Competition in Paris (the diploma they received is still visible on one of the facades of the office building) and sales continued to grow. In 1889, the brewery added a new malt house and, in 1893, three double-floor hot air kilns. New offices were also added. For the first time ever in Brussels, elements of the city's collective heritage were recycled in an industrial building. The architect Bordiaux recovered the entrance door, the bronze pediment and the blue stone from the former savings bank building in place de Brouckère, which had been demolished and replaced by the Hotel Métropole, also belonging to the Wielemans family.

At the beginning of 1899, Prosper and Edouard Wielemans bought out their brother André’s share of the business. At the dawn of the 20th century, the brewery welcomed the third generation of Wielemans and marked the start of an enormous period of expansion. In order to keep up with increased demand, the Wielemans family decided to build a new brew house equipped with the latest technology and which had its own electricity generating plant as of 1905. The First World War slowed down expansion considerably. Nonetheless, after 1920 Wielemans launched two new products - Stout and Scotch - to re-start brewery production and to compete with the English beers which had invaded the Belgian market.

In order to respond to the growing demand and to adapt their production equipment to the latest innovations, the Wielemans family decided in 1930 to invest in a new brew hall. The building designed by Adrien Blomme housed two times four vessels: a mash tank, a lauter tank, a filtration tank and a boiling kettle, making it the largest brew hall in Europe. The locals soon started referring to it as “The Wielemans Tower”. This building would serve as a landmark in the Brussels landscape, becoming an impressive showcase for the business due to its special modernist architecture.

Also during the 1930s new beers were added to the range, such as Forst, l’Extra-Foncée or Nationale. In 1936, Prosper Wielemans died and his son Léon succeeded him, continuing the expansion of the family business. In 1938, the Wielemans purchased the Marly brewery in Neder-Over-Heembeek and transferred their malting activities there. In 1940, war once again intervened, slowing down production. Raw materials were scarce and a decree by the German occupation limited alcohol content to 0.8°. This “fluitjesbier” is marketed under the registered trademark “Wiel’s”.

After the war, a new generation took over the brewery and tried to re-energize it by expanding the infrastructure considerably. In spite of these efforts, the business no longer flourished. In 1978, the Leuven-based Artois brewery purchased a part of the capital and became the administrator of the Wielemans brewery. In September 1980, the Wielemans brewery was liquidated. The activities at the factory in Forest were gradually scaled down until 29 September 1988, when the last Wiel’s was brewed, thus marking the end of more than 100 years of brewing activity.

In November 1988, only two months after the Artois group had sold the equipment to a wholesaler of used brewery plant equipment, two of the eight tanks were dismantled. In spite of the outcry by the non-profit organisation La Fonderie, which protects the economic and social history of the Brussels Region, two other tuns were destroyed, thus ignoring the historical and heritage value of this equipment. It was only then that the Regional Development Company purchased the four remaining tuns for 2 million Belgian francs, thereby saving a part of Brussels' industrial history from destruction while awaiting a new buyer. At the same time, the building, which was still the property of Interbrew, was classified by the Royal Monuments and Landscapes Commission.

In April 1989, Artois-Interbrew sold the complex to AMG Development, which proposed to transform the brew hall into a museum of industrial technology, and to construct a centre on the site for small and medium enterprises, as well as housing, offices and a high-tech centre. 

In September 1989, Michel Villers, who had become 25% owner of the site, managed to convince a Swiss architectural firm to turn the complex into a centre for “unusual and original businesses”. This new project, consisting of a surface area of 16,500 square meters, provided for a high-class restaurant, offices for businesses in the design and fashion sectors and even luxury lofts.

 Two years later, the fate of the former Wielemans brewery was still uncertain. On April 12, 1991, Le Soir reported on a new lead: the pensions office was looking to relocate in the eventuality that it sold the Midi Tower which it owned. In spite of its many defects, the site in Forest was a serious possibility. A project was even designed by the Metzger-Deleuze architectural firm in which the Blomme building, the former brew hall and the Wielemans offices would be integrated into the new construction. Once again the project was abandoned. The site continued to deteriorate and acquired the reputation of being an urban blight. 

In 2001, the Brussels Capital Region initiated an expropriation procedure under the auspices of the 1993 ruling regarding material heritage protection The Region thus became the new owner of the “Blomme” building and of the former brew hall and started looking for a new project to rehabilitate the buildings. The Region retained the idea of creating an important centre for contemporary art there. 

The restoration and refurbishing work, after the plans of Art & Build, started on 24 January 2005. A contemporary art centre in Brussels, which everyone has been awaiting for years, opened its doors in May 2007.