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.

DEBUE

juillet, 2022

DEBUE

Conversion of a commercial building into a mixed building

Description: 3 apartments and a shop on the ground floor
Type of project: Mixed building
Type of customer: Private
Department: Demolition and construction
Location: Uccle, Brussels, (BE)
Surface area: 370 m²
Year: 2018-2020
Contractor: ITD construct sprl
Engineers: Verhelst engineers

Pictures: Delphine Mathy

In the heart of the animation of the Xavier de Bue shopping street in Uccle, the Debue project aims to rehabilitate the floors of commercial houses in order to bring to life the commercial edges outside business hours.

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.