Art Deco architecture is often still seen as a luxury countering purist modernism and industrial mass production. However, there is a web of relations between these parallel tendencies. We will take a look at some fine examples of Art Deco in Brussels and the links between beauty and function, including some remarks on Henry van de Velde ) who 'never succumbed to the lure of Art Deco' (P. Puttemans) but whose intimate modernism and theoretical concepts relate to the more indulgent architecture of the interbellum.