A young couple is charmed by the patina and character of the casco space they purchased near the centre of Brussels. The old wooden beams, the rough concrete floor, the traces of paint that testify to years of intense use and the three majestic cast-iron columns. Our brief is to develop an interior that includes a living space, two bedrooms, a bathroom, a guest toilet and ample storage space further building on (and thus partially preserving) the space's existing qualities.
The designed pursued three clear goals: the existing columns should become directors of the new spatiality; natural light needs to reach deep inside the heart of the flat and ecological materials should be used. All of this whilst strengthening the as-found existing industrial atmosphere.
The night hall has a trapezoidal shape whose opening on the living space side fans out to the bedrooms. This creates generous views from the front to the rear façade from various points in the bedrooms and living space. When the doors between the living and bedroom areas are open, you can still feel the overall length and width of the original space. Therefore, we propose to conceive the four main doors around the night hall as large panels that, once opened, disappear inside the wall. Acoustic or visual privacy of spaces inside the flat remains possible by closing (certain) doors – thus allowing the residents to mediate between openness or privacy according to the situation/need.
The cupboard that separates the two (bedroom) rooms at the front ends in a point just behind a column. In this way, this cupboard is barely perceptible from the living space. Even more: an unobstructed view to the two front windows prevails and natural light also enters the living space from this side. The revolving door panels are lined with mirrors on the side of the living space. These doors create a trompe l'oeil effect when closed: they preserve the feeling of looking ‘through’ the entire space.
Together with the client, the choice is made to focus on ecological materials and circularity within the casco space. Changes or alterations can therefore take place with minimal construction waste. The new interior walls consist of wooden style walls, finished with OSB or paper fibre drywall. The prominent walls flanking the cast-iron columns are clad with an MDF board on which an ash veneer is bonded. The elevation of the floor at the level of the bedrooms, bathroom and storage room is a wood structure filled with cork granules. The client himself went in search of interesting, recycled materials: recycled railway carriage wood as flooring, old ceramic tiles from Rotor DC (reusable building materials organisation based in Brussels) for the entrance hall, storage room and bathroom. Various appliances such as the sinks, toilet, hand-washer, and kitchen island were also bought second-hand.
The long, low kitchen unit is designed as a refined, industrial-looking worktable made of wood and stainless steel. This furniture forms the boundary between the kitchen area and the living room and, partly due to its scale, lends a certain grandeur to the entire space. The furniture combines ash veneer with surfaces in stainless steel that subtly reflect light in the deepest area of the home.
