Square windows puncture the timber facade of this townhouse in Ghent, Belgium, which neighborhood studio Felt Architecture and Design not too long ago refurbished and widened to make room for 3 new flats .
Named Puinstraat soon after the street it is positioned on, the 4-storey creating has been transformed from an ageing single property into a “jigsaw” of various homes – one multi-storey family residence and 3 compact studio flats.
Felt co-founder Jasper Stevens commenced the task while working at another local firm, 360 Architecten. The short named for a a lot more versatile layout, with a variety of spaces that can be rented out.
Rather than extending the constructing back into the backyard, the architect was instead able to widen the framework, making plenty of room for an extra entrance fronting the street.
This street-dealing with facade was given a new coat of white paint to assist it fit with the neighbours, and functions a traditional grid of rectangular windows and doors. But the new finish wall was handled in a different way – clad with heat-handled ash slats and punctured by square windows in numerous sizes.
“The frontal facade is an iteration of the adjacent classical rhythm and white stucco,” explained Jasper Stevens. “In contrast, the lateral facade is very specific, suiting its role as the corner piece of the street.”
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“The shape even now refers to the blank facade of the outdated creating but the wooden vertical cladding and a series of seemingly randomly organized square windows plainly mark its singularity.”
This contrast is emphasised by the use of slender window frames, flush edges and a clean straightforward roofline – a far cry from the protruding eaves and deep window recesses of the front wall.
The three new flats are all slotted into the spaces of the present construction. The smallest can be identified on the ground floor, the following a single can be located two floors up on the 2nd floor, while the greatest occupies a room beneath the slanted roof.
All 3 residences are accessed by means of the original entranceway, which leads via to a communal staircase.
Extra entrances were added to the two the front and the side walls to supply accessibility to the household residence. The first opens into a garage, whilst the other leads straight into a central hallway.
A property office occupies the rest of this floor. Living, dining and kitchen spaces take up the vast majority of the very first floor, bedrooms are positioned on the second floor, and the uppermost level is described by Stevens as “a kind of crow’s nest”.
“[It is] a versatile space that could serve as workshop, guest room or private sanctuary, containing a small outdoors space the place one particular can enjoy the magnificent view of the close by river and marvel at the gloaming sundown,” he explained.
The architect also claims the layout could simply be adapted to suit the needs of potential occupants.
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“For instance, the primary floor could be rented out as a doctors practice or the crow’s nest could be additional to the prime studio, creating a luxury penthouse,” he extra.
The venture also incorporated the reworking of a “secret garden” at the rear of the constructing, which now boasts prolonged narrow paving slabs, slate pebbles and various plants and shrubs.
Exterior photography is by Filip Dujardin. Interior photography is by Felt.
Task credits:
Architects: Felt, 360 architecten
Undertaking architect: Jasper Stevens
Consultants: LIME, Robuust
Floor plans 
Sections and elevations Dezeen
