Room In The City
ROOM IN THE CITY
51N4E
ARCHITECTS
51N4E
DESIGN TEAM
Jan Haerens, Charlotte Schmidt, Jolein Bergers
EPB
Vec
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
UTIL Struktuurstudies, Frans Leenaerts
PARTNERS IN CHARGE
Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn
GARDEN DESING
Plant- en Houtgoed
LOCATION
Leuven, Belgium
CATEGORY
Houses, Renovation
Text description provided by architect.
The client, a family of 5, lives in an archetypical row house on a dense plot in the historic centre of Leuven.
The home is transformed into a collection of connected spaces with very diverse characters: a very big, high, and bright space with zenithal light becomes the centre of the project.
A small adjoining brick shed is reached through a secret staircase. The street-side room serves as a vestibule, a reception space plus a storage room.
The garden becomes an open-air room with green walls and an oversized water element.
The rooms are defined through a careful formulation of building elements: a floating glass roof, a thin concrete staircase, a terrazzo floor slab, a green earth wall, a large sliding window.
This collection of rooms becomes an ambivalent living environment in the continuum of public and private rooms that compose the city fabric.