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.

DECOSTER

juin, 2022

DECOSTER

Transformation of a car area in a green area

Description: Multifuncional space, architecture atelier and a thematich urban garden
Type of project: Social , Landscape
Type of customer: Private
Department: Transformation
Location: Forest, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: 400 m²
Year: 2022

The Decoster project is the transformation of the disused sheds, offices and stables into an architectural atelier ; the transformation of garages into a multifuncional space. And finally the demolition of garages and the courtyard to install a thematic urban vegetable garden;

Some non-profit organizations, schools and neighborhood associations are directly adjacent to our project, allowing us to consider a series of collaborations

Passing from an entirely devoted car area and totally mineralized to a common space mainly green, dedicated to its environment and to the interconnections that it could create, the site seems to us to bring an appreciable added value to the cour but also to the district.

As for the revaluation of the buildings, the objective in terms of architecture is to insert itself soberly into the existing buildings: To fit into the existing bays, to preserve the facade walls, the roof slopes. Restore the bricks both inside and outside, keep the structures as much as possible and reuse what can be reused. Enhance the few details of the façade work done on the old offices and restore everything that can and should be restored.

SCARABAEUS II

mai, 2022

SCARABAEUS II

A new cultural center for Schaerbeek

Description: transformation of the Elite cinema and Scarabaeus theatre into a new socio-cultural facility in collaboration with l’Escaut
Type of project: Cultural
Type of customer: Public
Department: Transformation and renovation
Location: Schaerbeek, Brussels (BE)
Year: 2019-2020

In the historic heart of Schaerbeek,the project consists of the transformation of the former Elite cinema and Scarabaeus theatre into a new socio-cultural facility accessible to all and open to its neighbourhood. The project involves the renovation, reconstruction and extension of an old cinema, a theatre and a tenement building with a view to creating a new facility with stage areas, adaptable spaces for various cultural and social activities, as well as technical and administrative areas.

LONGUE

juillet, 2019

LONGUE HAIE

Conversion of a former hospice into a 10 apartments building

Description: transformation of an old hospice into a 10-family building
Type of project: Housing
Type of customer: Private
Department: Transformation
Location: Linkebeek, Vlanderen (BE)
Surface area: 760 m²
Year: 2016-2019

Located in a green area of Linkebeek, the former hospice on rue de la Longue Haie has been transformed into an apartment building. Taking advantage of the existing volume, the project aims to offer architectural quality to the housing by working on the composition of the façades, the addition of suspended terraces and the treatment of the surroundings.

Picture credit : Fred Sablon