A pair of glass panels, weighing nearly four tonnes and spanning two storeys in height, pivot out in the direction of the garden of this renovated Antwerp residence.
The twin panels – described by Belgian studio Sculp IT as “the world’s biggest pivoting window” – type the rear wall of the home extension, connecting a new kitchen and dining area with the backyard beyond.
The house had previously featured extensions that supplied no connection with the garden.
Relevant story: Pivoting steel doors lead into a residence and photography studio by Olson Kundig
Architects Pieter Peerlings and Silvia Mertens cleared these away to develop space for the new glazed addition.
Their aim was to ensure that all 3 ranges of the new structure – named LALO – would advantage from normal light and backyard views.
A pair of tailor-created French windows have been commissioned from Polish producer Jansen and fitted with insulated glass. Each and every of the six-metre-higher doors opens with a pivot rather than a traditional hinge.
“The straightforward, modern glass rear has the world’s largest pivoting window – three metres broad by six metres large – and can make this property ready for the future,” said Peerlings and Mertens, who also lay claim to possessing developed the narrowest house in the Netherlands and the world’s greatest floating swimming pool.
“We did not do a lot but what we did has giant repercussions to the way of living in that property,” they stated.
The new ground floor location offers an open-strategy kitchen and dining region adjoining the backyard, even though utility rooms and a garage location are located inside of the present developing.
Polished concrete forms the floor of the extension and continues out into the backyard terrace, supplying a sense of continuity in between interior and exterior spaces.
Countertops are also created from the exact same material and an island in the centre of the space functions casters, permitting it to be moved to the terrace. In accordance to the architects, this makes it “the perfect barbecue house”.
A narrow workplace area is suspended above the kitchen, level with the first floor of the current residence. Over, one of the two upper-floor bedrooms has accessibility to an inner balcony that overlooks the dining space.
The architects also carried out performs to the current property, renovating two bathrooms positioned amongst the bedrooms.
A freestanding bath sits immediately on the floorboards of one spacious bathroom, while green tiles were utilised to mosaic a shower area.
The historic facade facing the street was left as it was, to retain its “bourgeois radiance” mentioned Peerlings and Mertens.
Photography is by Luc Roymans.
Undertaking credits:
Style: Sculp[IT] – Pieter Peerlings and Silvia Mertens
Manufacturer: Jansen
Site strategy 
Ground floor strategy 
First floor plan 
2nd floor prepare Dezeen
