ARBALETE

mai, 2018

ARBALETE

A single house

Description: Renovation of a single house
Type of project: House
Type of customer: Private
Department: Renovation
Location: Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: 388 m²
Year: 2016-2018

Planted with majestic trees, the decor of the Square de l’Arbalète highlights an interesting collection of bourgeois villas from the interwar period. To support the description in the leaflet ‘Watermael-Boitsfort à la carte’, note: the villa Mamet at no. 3, which displays a pure modernism and has recently been renovated. The number 40-42 on the Avenue de l’Arbalète a few steps away also stands out for its illustrious architect (Brunfaut) and its sober volumes and finishes. Finally, note the proximity of the Rombauts houses on avenue de la tenderie 13 to complete this quality environment. Recently a number of contemporary projects have also taken place there.
The house, built in the 1950s, was of rather light architectural interest, mixing different styles typical of the neo-classical villas of that period.
The issues at stake are based on three distinct axes :
– to produce an architecture in line with the needs of a large family, including 5 bedrooms and an office space.
– to meet the building’s energy performance standards
– respect and dialogue with the architectural and environmental context.

ACACIA

août, 2017

ACACIA

Renovation of a villa

Description: Extension and renovation of a villa
Type of project: House
Type of customer: Private
Department: Transformation and construction
Location: Hoeilaart, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: 209 m²
Year: 2012-2014
Contractor: NAD sprl

Pictures: Maxime Delvaux

The building is located in the Groenendael district near the Station on the edge of the Sonian Forest in a beautiful natural setting. The detached house overhanging the street is overlooking a wooded green area that cannot be built. It is bordered in the back by a large garden surrounded by hundred-yearold trees. The peculiarity of this building lies in its roof with two very steep slopes (60°) which dominate the facades. Given its exceptional natural context, the idea was to link the building with its surroundings. The house was completely covered with anthrazinc (dark grey zinc) to create a high performance thermal envelope and to unify the facade and the roof. Two extensions, like frames, were built in order to connect with the surrounding landscape. These extensions to the outside have increased significantly the space on the 1 st floor and converted the space under the roof in a beautiful viewpoint.

VANDERAY

août, 2017

VANDERAY

The project consists in creating a contemporary intervention allowing a dialogue between the two old classical and working-class facades through a skilful play of volumes without changing the surface of the house.

Description: Single Family House
Type of project: Housing
Type of customer: Private
Location: Uccle
Surface: 150 m²
Year: 2017

Pictures: Delphine Mathy

The house is located in the interior of a block, at the end of a cobblestone easement. The avenue is heterogeneous and mixes single-family houses and tenement buildings, classical style and « working class » style.
The house is located at the intersection of these two typologies, and appears to be the union of two small houses or parts of houses.
The extension to the garden level makes it possible to place a dining room and thus enlarge the day space and to create a roof extension in the form of a dormer window in the extension of the new façade.
The new facade thus created contrasts with its large openings and external insulation, but is integrated into the ensemble by its white-painted brick facing and its wooden frames. The existing facades are restored, the windows replaced by more efficient windows with traditional profiles. All appendages were removed. The renovated dwelling provides three bedrooms and a wide-open living room on the garden level.
The extension makes it possible to create a larger bedroom, with a magnificent view of the surrounding vegetation in this part of the block.
The discreet and harmonious intervention enhances the value of the whole building.

BIP

août, 2017

BIP

Description: renovation and transformation of the reception area of the BIP building

Partner of collaboration: Jean Paul Hermant Architects
Type of project: Cultural
Type of customer: Public
Department: Transformation and renovation
Location: Brussels (BE)
Year: 2000

BIP is located in a highly symbolic area of Brussels. The site features a superimposition of historical layers; one of the most impressive is the underground path from the Palais du Coudenberg to the Place Royale, which crosses numerous medieval remains.

The project consists mainly of reconfiguring the BIP’s reception area.

The architectural intervention highlights the historical traces and gives the visitors the opportunity to experience a little less than a thousand years of our city’s history by directing the flow of visitors.

The new entrance gives all visitors, including groups and PRMs, access to the three different museums.

(Coudenberg, Brussels. Experience and the Cat Museum).

The new reception area involves lowering the existing floor slab by +/- 1.4 m. The idea is to provide level even access from the sidewalk of the Place Royale. Through a thermal sluice, visitors are directed to a large reception desk, which manages and organizes the various flows to the museums.

Multiples visual links are created throughout the building by creating a large atrium behind the counter.

A new opening in the slab creates visual links to the early Coudenberg excavations. The different historical layers can be read on the walls. A staircase is built through this opening, and after several stair landings, it joins the steps of the old staircase linking Rue Isabelle and the inner courtyard of the former palace. The design of this new staircase is based on a floating aesthetic thanks to a system of hangers, ensuring that the existing remains untouched.

Around the main entrance area, the existing floor levels are maintained, and various staircases and elevators ensure easy access to the various spaces and floors where, among the new circulation areas and sanitary facilities, a generous bar-cafeteria is created.

POMMIERS

août, 2017

POMMIERS

Renovation of a house

Description: Renovation and extension of a house
Type of project: House
Type of customer: Private
Department: Renovation and extension
Location: Auderghem, Brussels (BE)
Surface area: 198 m²
Year: 2012-2014

The house is situated in a remarkable picturesque development of the 50s enchantingly named after the Apple trees area “Le clos des Pommiers fleuris”, which reunites around fifty houses on the borders of the Woluwe river near the Tenreuken ponds. These houses are not taking advantage of this idyllic surrounding: little or no openings in the rear facades, small rooms and low ceilings. It was difficult to keep any elements of this house to satisfy the contractor’s wishes: Transform the house in low-energy or Passive House, increase the number of rooms and expand the space. The project was therefore to build an extension on two levels transforming the entire rear façade, creating a new staircase, cleaning the front façade, removing and replacing the walls by mixed steel and concrete columns, designing integrated furniture and finally through paying attention to each detail, offering a coherent and holistic project.