COURONNE

janvier, 2024

COURONNE

A new cultural center for Ixelles

Description: renovation and transformation of an old villa into a socio-cultural facility in Ixelles

Partners of collaboration: TAKTYK Landscape Urbanism – ND Stabilité – DÉTANG Engineering – ASM Acoustics
Type of project: Cultural
Type of customer: Public
Department: Transformation and renovation
Location: Ixelles, Brussels (BE)
Year: 2023

The proposal for the contest consists in a punctual transformation of the existing. The site of 40 avenue de la Couronne is an incredible site with impressive architectural and landscape qualities.

Originally, the existing house had been conceived as a generous private house. The contest offers to transform it into a cultural center which generates various technical adaptations. (fire security, structural adjustments, etc.)

The project’s mission is to visualize and value the existing qualities, to create a path through the topography of the site, to secure the different accesses and to transform the villa in a friendly and welcoming place for the users of the future cultural center.

The interventions are mainly limited to the essential, through a detailed analysis of existing spaces and based on an inventory of materials. The renovation follows an acupuncture approach: restoring a wall to consolidate, open spaces to gather volumes or create an opening to bring light and garden views into the heart of the center. All within the respect of the heritage value and the material life cycle.

The major architectural intervention is situated outside the building, huge terraces are creating several stunning views above the district. The proposed structure is transforming itself into an architectural ribbon creating new links.

The morphology of the site creates a huge gab in the neighborhood. The idea of the landscape design turns around the approach of creating a gateway between the popular district of rue Gray and the upscale district of avenue de la Couronne. A delicate suspended structure develops itself along the existing topography and above the vegetation of the wooded hillside. An architectural promenade invites the users to discover several outdoor spaces along the walkway. A green theater, vegetable gardens and various spaces designed with a scenography approach are hosting various activities of the cultural center.

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.

SAINT-ANTOINE

octobre, 2022

SAINT-ANTOINE

Design of a playground for a primary and kindergarten school, renovation of the existing buildings

Description: Transformation of the playground and renovation of the school (primary and kindergarten)
Type of project: Education
Type of customer: Public
Department: Transformation and renovation
Location: Forest, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: 800m²
Year: in progress

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.