七小别墅丨比利时丨GoffartPolomé Architectes

Architects:Goffart-Polomé Architectes

Area:400m²

Year:2017

Photographs:Antoine Richez

Lead Architects:Brice Polomé, Damien Goffart

Structure Engineer:Bureau Delvaux

Contractor:Construct TIM

Building Site:Damien Goffart

Design, Building Permit:Marie Maerckx

City:Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes

Country:Belgium

Text description provided by the architects. Started as the restoration of an old villa, the project aims to enhance the quality of the ground floor by reconnecting it to the garden. The major intervention focuses on the creation of a new plinth to magnify the presence of the villa in the middle of the garden meanwhile the bel-etage, the previous living room, is converted into a parental suite. Taking advantage of the existing semi-buried cellar, its reconversion is intended to reconnect living spaces to the garden.

In addition, the whole entrance sequence was revised which offered a new floor to the house. In that respect, the new entrance takes advantage of the existing garage door in order to clarify the transition from the street to the house. This inhabited plinth houses new functions linked to the family life which are now oriented towards the garden. Although the ground floor is semi-buried, a patio was designed to bring natural light in the very heart of the project. Anchored on the plinth, the bel-etage is converted into a parental suite meanwhile upper floors host other bedrooms.

The chosen position to deal with this intervention voluntarily plays with contrasts between old and new, redefining the concept of room into ambiguous living spaces. This specific contrast, together with the articulation between these two temporalities define the singularity of this project. Indeed, the articulation between old and new takes shape in the composition of the staircase when the roughness of the concrete meets the delicacy of the wood.

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