HOOGVORST

décembre, 2024

HOOGVORST

A cultural hub dedicated to eary childhood

Description: renovation and transformation of an old theater

Partners of collaboration: VANTHOURNOUT architecture – TAKTYK Landscape Urbanism – STir – KAMAR – ASM Acoustics
Type of project: Cultural – Education
Type of customer: Public
Department: Transformation and renovation
Location: Ixelles, Brussels (BE)
Year: 2024

The proposal for the contest aims to establish a community hub dedicated to early childhood in the former Magicland premises, addressing multiple objectives: to coexist harmoniously with the urban dynamics of Rue d’Aerschot, to create a pocket of biodiversity in a dense urban setting, and to integrate diverse functions, including a crèche, offices, and an educational agricultural activity.

The design highlights the courtyard’s remarkable tree by incorporating permeable surfaces that promote biodiversity and provide a cooling effect. The building is anchored on the existing foundations, and its stepped form adapts to the environment, creating space for the natural growth and expansion of the tree’s crown over time.

The historic facade will be restored, while reclaimed materials from the site will ensure aesthetic and environmental continuity.

The spaces are thoughtfully designed for varied uses, with separate access points for the primary functions (crèche, urban agriculture, and maintenance). Particular emphasis has been placed on the fluidity of circulation, accessibility for people with reduced mobility (PMR), and the versatility of spaces, such as the bright atrium, which serves as an interface between the crèche’s sections.

The basement accommodates a micro-agricultural production facility integrated with an educational component.

Children and parents are welcomed on the ground floor of the former factory buildings.
Three sections are organized around a central, light-filled atrium, which functions as a reception area, inner courtyard, and a space for events and educational activities.
A dedicated entrance area allows parents to accompany their children to the changing rooms.
Each section features its own facilities: an activity room, enclosed dormitories, a changing area, and a feeding station.

The first floor houses administrative functions and staff areas. Offices, positioned along the facade, benefit from ample natural light and open views of the garden and surrounding areas. These modular spaces are designed to adapt to evolving needs over time.
Additional office spaces are located beneath the building’s original timber roof structure, offering a bright and inviting environment suited to individual or small-group work.

The building’s layout optimizes movement flows and prevents interference between its various functions.

The new corner building enhances the overall functionality by providing storage space, workshops, and bicycle parking facilities.

Sustainability lies at the core of the project, emphasizing circular design principles, material reuse, spatial adaptability, and minimalistic finishes.

Lastly, the material palette and development strategy prioritize robustness, reversibility, and minimal environmental impact, embodying a forward-looking approach to ecological transition.

ARTAN

août, 2024

ARTAN

Renovation of a villa in Schaerbeek

Description: Renovation of a villa 3 façades
Type of project: House
Type of customer: Private
Department: Renovation
Location: Schaerbeek, Brussels (BE)
Year: 2023

pictures: Delphine Mathy

The ARTAN project involves the renovation and conversion of a single-family home. The interventions are designed to improve the functionality and aesthetics of the dwelling while respecting the original architectural features.

One of the key aspects of the project is the extension, including the creation of an additional bedroom upstairs and a terrace offering direct access to the garden. This creates a direct connection between the inside and the outside environment. The entrance hall has been completely redesigned to create a bright, welcoming space.

The organisation of this new space allows fluid circulation around the garage, accentuating the feeling of openness as soon as you enter the house. The overall intervention is characterised by its sobriety and discretion, highlighting the existing architecture rather than supplanting it.

On the street side, however, a bolder approach was adopted: the existing brick wall was demolished to make way for the addition, making the scale of the project visible from the street.

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.

FOULONS

avril, 2023

FOULONS

Renovation of a villa

Description: Renovation and construction of 7 appartements
Type of project: Housing
Type of customer: Regie Foncière
Department: Transformation and construction
Location: Brussels (BE)
Surface area: 540 m²
Year: 2023 –
Contractor:

Located in the heart of the Anneessens district in the Brussels pentagon and close to the Midi station, the project fills the last hollow tooth in the Rue des Foulons. The latter is a lively artery in the district due to the presence of local shops and associations. A strong social cohesion and an attachment to these shops offer the inhabitants of the street and of the adjacent streets a quality of life and an identity that is conducive to the development of a true neighbourhood life.

Our ambition is to work with the intrinsic qualities of the site, to work with the existing. The hollow space will allow the construction of a front building aiming at stitching the urban fabric. At the bottom of the plot, the old building is entirely preserved to enhance the value of a structurally viable construction and to avoid the impact of demolition, with the construction waste that this represents.

The gap between the two buildings is the result of a search for balance between the individual comfort of the dwellings and the distance between the interior facades. The front building has been dimensioned in such a way as to guarantee comfortable accommodation.

A perfect interweaving of the programme has allowed the depth of the building to be reduced to a minimum, creating an open space, wide enough to allow air and natural light to penetrate the heart of the plot. The circulation is implanted in the open space and serves the two buildings. The position of the stairs and footbridges in light construction.

The ground floor of the plot is dedicated to common spaces that will ensure a smooth transition from the street, while offering shared functions to the inhabitants. These spaces are visible to and crossed by all and encourage social interaction between the inhabitants. The sharing of certain spaces is today a major condition for the vitality of social exchanges and can play a role in the ecological transition by sharing the equipment necessary for the comfort of urban life.

Driven by ecological and social ambitions, we have given priority to spatial quality over surface area, by proposing rational, functional and comfortable studios. This choice allows us to free up a part of the ground dedicated to the creation of a permeable, planted common open space, a place of conviviality at the heart of the plot.

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.