Belgian architects Edouard Brunet and François Martens have converted a terraced house in Brussels into two apartments, adding a projecting box with a full-height glass wall to house a new kitchen (+ slideshow).
The five-storey property in Brussels’ Schaerbeek commune was previously occupied by a family members but grew to become also large for the owners’ needs after their youngsters moved out.
Brunet and Martens, who were collaborating on a project for the very first time, had been asked to separate the home into two flats so the owners could promote the reduced portion of the creating to a buddy.
The major residing area of the decrease flat is positioned on the ground floor in which it extends out towards the backyard, even though the upper apartment’s living spaces are located on the leading storey to make the most of the light and views.
A section of the slanted roof over the east-facing rear elevation was removed and a staircase was shifted in the direction of the centre of the creating. This developed room in the upper apartment for a new terrace and an extension to the kitchen that projects out 4 storeys above the ground.
Related story: Contekst combines oak, stone and concrete inside a minimal Belgian home
“The new space’s style is purposely and visibly modern as properly as uncluttered to distinguish it from the current developing,” explained the architects. “This frank intervention was manufactured possible thanks to the existing rear facade’s lack of cultural heritage interest and its relative bad state.”
The addition of the terrace and extension provides the residents with views across the Brussels skyline and enables natural light to penetrate the interior throughout the day.
Complete-height glazing wraps about the terrace to increase the connection in between the outside room and adjacent living location. Existing walls have been removed to emphasise the openness of the room, and a mezzanine was additional beneath the roof’s apex.
The architects designed the apartment’s primary practical spaces as a single unit that extends across the two storeys.
“The kitchen, the staircase, the toilets and the shower are put with each other to compose this piece of furniture, which circulates between the floors and the rooms, allowing for fluidity and hence alleviating the little surface regions inconvenience,” the architects additional.
Birch cladding gives these spaces with a sense of uniformity that extends to a cubby hole containing the tv. The wood was selected for its warm tone.
Only small alterations had been created to the apartment that occupies the reduce stories, including an overhaul of the present bathroom and the introduction of fitted bamboo furnishings and ironwork.
A new staircase separating the two apartments was necessary, so the architects collaborated with a metalworker to build a slender folded metal framework that sits above a bamboo plinth.
Other recent projects in Brussels include an old industrial creating converted into an open-plan apartment, and an aluminium-clad housing block funded and created by its residents.
Photography is by Dennis De Smet.
Task credits:
Architects: Edouard Brunet and François Martens
Standard building firm: RENODAV-SEB sprl (Witold Szklarzewski)
Outside woodwork: ECOVITRE sprl (Karol Duchnowski)
Ironwork (suspended iron staircase): ESPRIT DE FER (Luc Van Massenhove)
Stability engineer: Jacques Dufour Ing.
Diagrammatic section – click for bigger image 
