VALDUC

septembre, 2025

VALDUC

Filling the Gap: Living in the Heart of the Block

Description: New Constructions in Auderghem

Partners of collaboration: GNS Architects
Type of project: Residential
Type of customer: Private
Department: New Construction
Location: Auderghem, Brussels (BE)
Year: 2022 – 2025

pictures: Delphine Mathy

The project is composed of three distinct volumes, each designed in relation to its context and use, with adapted volumetric choices and materials.

On the street front, the first building fills the gap with a three-storey structure (ground floor + 2 + roof). The open ground floor forms a generous passage that provides access to the site, maintains visual transparency towards the interior courtyard, and creates breathing space in the narrow street. On the upper floors, two two-bedroom apartments benefit from living rooms facing the street and recessed terraces, while the top floor accommodates a studio under the roof with a terrace oriented towards the gardens. The façades and roofs align with the neighboring building, combining red-beige brickwork with aluminum frames and off-white lacquered metalwork.

The second volume, along the party wall, provides five covered parking spaces, arranged diagonally around a maneuvering area and sheltered by a greened metal canopy.

At the back of the plot, the third volume houses two single-family homes (188 m² each). Their three-sided layout, shallow floor plan, and large windows maximize natural light and foster a strong relationship with the gardens. Successive façade setbacks break down the volumes and create areas of privacy, while the side façades are blind at upper levels to protect neighbors’ privacy. The use of white matte glazed brick and lacquered steel emphasizes a luminous, monochrome character and helps reduce the visual impact within the block.

The landscaping strengthens this architectural approach: the demolition of the former parking structures opens up the site and allows the lowering of certain party walls in agreement with neighbors. A planted pedestrian path structures circulation and creates a convivial atmosphere.

FLORIDE

août, 2024

FLORIDE

Renovation of a family house

Description: Renovation of a single house
Type of project: House
Type of customer: Private
Department: Renovation
Location: Uccle, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: 380 m²
Year: 2022-2024

pictures: Delphine Mathy

The project involves a major renovation and transformation of an existing semi-detached family house in Uccle.

The original volume of the house has been mainly maintained while the entrance and the stairs were modified to maximize the entrance of light through the third façade at the back of the house.

The ground floor is now dedicated to the entrance, storage, offices and a garage; the first floor contains the living area, and the other levels are assigned to multiple bedrooms. The levels are connected by a new concrete staircase which offers nice views over the garden.

The ground floor has been enhanced and transformed. An office area has been added, and new, larger windows and openings brighten the interior. The front door has been modified to allow ground floor access. The existing living area has been transformed to create an open and illuminated living and dining room with a direct connection to the open kitchen, which is linked to a large terrace on the garden side of the house. A library has been installed in the former entrance hall, giving a view across to the garden and a degree of ‘inside/outside’ permeability thanks to the stairwell, which extends to the rear and has a large bay window over its entire height

The facade work is characterized by brickwork without visible joints.

ESCRIMES

juin, 2023

ESCRIME

Juxtapositional extension connected to a 1930’s house.

Description: Extension of a family house
Type of project: Housing
Type of customer: Private
Department: Transformation and renovation
Location: Woluwe Saint Lambert, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: m²
Year: 2022-2023
Contractor: MRB BATIMENT sprl

Pictures: Cinzia Romanin

The project calls for the creation of a garden-side extension to accommodate a living room in contact with the garden. This new volume is designed as a link between the outdoor space and the kitchen. The transition between

The transition between levels is ensured by a mid-height position between the garden level and the ground floor.

The interior spaces are largely open between the dining room and kitchen and between the kitchen and living room.

The position of the extension is designed to limit its impact on the useful, sunny garden space.

In terms of architectural language, the expression is resolutely contemporary but is based on the reinterpretation of certain compositional elements of the existing house, such as the cornice overhangs.

ALSEMBERG

septembre, 2022

ALSEMBERG

Family house in Uccle

Description: Transformation and renovation of an warehouse into a residential housing.
Type of project: Housing – Familyhouse
Type of customer: Private
Department: Transformation and renovation
Location: Uccle, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: 280 m²
Year: 2020-2022
Pictures: Delphine Mathy
Contractor: MP instal
Stability engineers : Verhelst Engineers
Collaboration : BC architect, Rotor
PEB: Coralie Van Pottelsberghe

Located in Uccle in the interior of a city block, an aluminum coloring warehouse that had been abandoned for more than 10 years was converted into a passive house for the owners.

The ensemble formed by the carriage entrance and the abandoned warehouse covers the entire plot. It offers sufficient surfaces and sizes for the development of their personal project.

The concept is simple: to work on the void. By creating a patio at the entrance and a garden at the back, the project can develop the necessary and sufficient facade surfaces to bring natural light into all the living rooms, entirely glazed. By adding a floor in the existing template, we provide the additional floor areas necessary for the program, while promoting the compactness of the whole and thus ensuring better energy performance. More fundamentally, this work allows the restoration of open spaces and the block is considerably aerated.

The structure is mixed: slab and floor in reinforced concrete for thermal inertia, spans and the absence of finishing, steel posts fully integrated into the insulated walls, steel frame entirely made with the elements of the existing dismantled frame.

Inside, the floors were made of rammedearth and the walls were plastered with clay, two totally circular products, made from the unpolluted and undisturbed excavated earth of the urban sites of Brussels. The terrazzo terrace slabs are made from reused materials (dismantled facades).

The workshop is covered with galvanized corrugated sheets selected for their low cost, longevity and ability to reflect solar heat. The same criteria determined the choice of anodized aluminum frames. The industrial language is a deliberate nod to the workshop’s past.

AMBROISE

juin, 2022

AMBROISE

Co living Ambroise

Description: Transformation and renovation of an appartement building into a Co living house.
Type of project: Housing – Co living
Type of customer: Private
Department: Transformation and renovation
Location: Uccle, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: m²
Year: 2020-2022
Contractor: MP Instal sprl
Stability engineers: Verhelst engineers
Siteweb: maisonambroise.be

Pictures: Delphine Mathy

The AMBROISE project starts with a meeting between two buildings within the same plot: a Brussels house, with a very elaborate facade on the street frontage, and a warehouse with an industrial character inside the block.

Driven by a project that could keep this link, the owners engaged in a programmatic and spatial reflection aiming at creating links between the occupants, and allowing to increase their quality of life in the city.

By re-imagining and transforming the spaces of the front house within its existing boundaries, it was possible to create a 6-bedroom co-living space. The community has an important place in the project but the process starts with the quality of the private space, for which nothing has been neglected. Therefore, special attention is given to acoustics, materials and design. All the rooms have a generous surface, are accompanied by a shower room, a private toilet, an office corner and vintage furniture.

The top floor under the roof is a common space connected to a large terrace.

The choice of clay plaster for the interior walls, from BC Materials, offers a warm and sustainable character, providing an intimate and natural cocoon in the mineral context of the city.

The project echoes an eco-responsible approach.