For this thorough renovation across from the Saint-Donatus Park in Leuven, only the street façade was kept because of its historical and cultural heritage value. The house was built according to its original main volume with a terraced extension on the ground floor and the first floor.
The premise of the new, south facing extension is to get as much air and light into the house as possible. This translates into maximally glazed façades and roof volumes with roof terraces that bend upward towards the southern sun. The rear building makes the same dynamic gesture towards the main volume and in this way also opens to the courtyard garden and the roof terraces.
The rebuilt “rear façade” of the main volume is integrated in the house as an interior façade: a bare masonry wall made of recovered bricks where the original window openings become interior windows that form an interplay of views throughout the house.
To create as many light passages and views through the house as possible, the floor is lowered half a story in the heart of the property to create a split-level. Consequently, the light is being pulled deep into the house. Both on the ground and first floors, a sequencing of high and low ceilings unfolds. The high spaces accommodate dynamic function like the breakfast corner on the street side and the living room on the garden side. In the lower spaces, more intimate functions are accommodated. The split level also generates interaction throughout the house, in which the phased circulation acts as a spatial promenade.
Every level is conceived as an open plan; the different spaces are established by the alternating free standing multifunctional size modules, made from walnut veneer, and the floating wall furniture, detailed in a rigid white grid.
Furthermore, the house is conceived as a wheelchair-accessible dwelling, made to last an entire lifetime. With its open plan, every level is both accessible by stairs and by elevator.
