Location: Brussels, Belgium Date: 2022- Programme: House & Art studio Client: Private Status: Permit Team:
Traumnovelle (architects)
Located in the heart of a densely-populated block in the Saint-Gilles district, this project on rue de Rome aims to reconcile activity and housing by converting a former bakery into an artist's studio and residence.
Inspired by the cabinet of curiosities, the intimacy of the space, conducive to the act of creation, is punctuated by framings that define the visible and the hidden. This visual game is made possible by a spatial composition that gives pride of place to three patios. These are defined and emphasized by vertical circulation and a topographical insertion resulting from the site's initial morphology. The thresholds, odes to the domestic universe, are federated by a single materialization conveying a continuous floor. Interiors and exteriors succeed one another, blending into one another, inviting a contemplative posture. This hybrid space, with its functions (activity and residence) and its nature (interior and exterior), becomes a refuge and a window on the world.
"The intimate, preserved, jealous space of the cabinet only makes sense in relation to an absolute exterior [...] a source of wonder".
