Belgian structure studio Mamout has refurbished a townhouse in Brussels with a collection of straightforward alterations that “take advantage of what already exists”.
Situated in Koekelberg, northeast of Brussels’ centre, the four-storey brick townhouse had beforehand been given a two-storey rear extension that Mamout stated had left its inside darkish and “virtually unusable”.
As an alternative of remodeling your complete website, Mamout opened up the centre of the house by carving out a double-height, skylit atrium. This has created the impact of two buildings, linked by a pale blue metallic staircase.
The staircase hyperlinks the 2 decrease storeys containing the shopper’s own residence, whereas an present staircase on the entrance of the house has been repurposed to supply entry to a standalone residence on the higher two ranges.
Within the atrium, present openings within the partitions have been reimagined as inner home windows or balconies, offering views from the first-floor bedrooms onto the ground-floor residing, eating and kitchen areas.
“The constructing was initially an imposing eclectic-style townhouse with a big Expo 58-style extension – every has an inherent high quality, however the two entities didn’t talk with one another and lacked pure mild,” defined studio architect Sébastian Dachy.
“We tried to maintain as a lot as doable of the present parts in the home, turning the earlier openings into inside home windows or balconies, tying to blur the excellence between indoor and out of doors,” he informed Dezeen.
On the rear of the house, a backyard room with a curved, glazed wall overlooks a patio with an out of doors seating space and a garden resulting in an present shed.
Most of the present inner finishes had been retained however painted white, together with a tough brick wall within the atrium, creating refined contrasts in texture all through.
Picket flooring within the entrance of the house give technique to tiling on the rear, with the atrium demarcated by a contrasting tiled end.
“The partitions have many alternative textures,” Dachy informed Dezeen. “It was determined to color all of it white to refresh the place and provides some coherence – the completely different textures making a refined vibrance,” he continued.
“We needed the [blue] stair to pop up, being the brand new iconic factor of the place,” he added.
White, textured partitions and pastel colors had been additionally featured in a earlier townhouse refurbishment by Mamout in collaboration with AUXAU, which concerned reconfiguring the house’s interiors to enhance its entry to pure mild.
Elsewhere in Brussels, Notan Workplace just lately created a “micro-city” of housing on an industrial website.
The pictures is by Séverin Malaud.
