Load-bearing structures are supposed to be insulated and to be invisible from the outside. In a street of plastered houses that were once interspersed with factories and sheds, that is an impoverishment of the streetscape. With the construction of our own office, we gave the street back an atelier with large spans and load-bearing elevations. And, like a couple of restored ateliers further along, it’s habitable as well. The front facade is a self-supporting, single-brick construction in which large openings were made using concrete beams and steel columns. The floors are thermally separated from the elevations. This is rendered visible by the floor above the first floor, five prestressed hollow-core units resting on the party walls: against the front elevation there is a gap containing a stairwell, against the rear elevation a light strip. Sturdily framed, dynamic windows and smooth intersecting lines (a solar shade and a drainpipe) complete the tectonic composition. Cupboards and half-height walls follow the edges of the structural parts, articulating separation and connection. The plaster and oak veneer finishes that lend the reception areas a touch of decorum, are absent in the atelier spaces. For the rest, it is the relations with the outside that define the spaces. The kitchen/meeting room echoes an enclosed garden. The atelier on the first floor opens high and wide to the street, but seeks privacy behind the lower wall and the stair. The atelier above is oriented towards the northern light and looks out, high above the gardens, across the roofscape. rainwater tank afford the garden shed a basic level of self-sufficiency.