Repurposing and renovating old buildings is a modern trend, which helps to save money and give a new life to an old space. Today’s home that we are featuring used to be a school, which was built in 1908, and was renovated into a contemporary home by Atelier Vens Vanbelle.
There are various arched spaces that extend between the original windows and a new living room. A key issue was how to integrate the large arched windows facing onto the street into the design keeping the spaces private at the same time. The designers decided to create tube-like spaces aligned with these glazed surfaces. The privacy of the first floor was maintained with one-way glass, which still provides the spaces with natural light.
The first of the openings forms the main entrance from the street. The second extruded space contains a kitchen, and the area culminating in the final window accommodates an office. The deep walls between the carved spaces incorporate key functional features, such as appliances, worktops and storage in the kitchen, and a desk and shelving in the office.
A space between the entrance hallway and the kitchen conceals a toilet and a staircase that leads up to the first floor, and down to a partly submerged basement level providing additional storage and a laundry room.
The interiors feature features a contrasting palette of raw, untreated materials that lend it a tactile and lived-in feel: brick walls, exposed steel beams, untreated materials and timber. The furnishings are modern and rather simple, there are some colorful touches like a sunny yellow sofa and you can see cool industrial pieces like chairs ad a dining table.