BTR, Brussels

The BTR single-family house project is located on a street made up of townhouses. The new construction stands precisely at a significant shift in the alignments of the building fronts between the upper and lower parts of the street. Looking for integration with the existing buildings, the new volume try plays with this misalignment difference and creates a fold in the front facade which compensates for both the depth offsets and the alignments of cornice levels. The set of levels and openings of spaces is also readable on the facades, and the materials have been chosen to take up the expression of the structure of the wood frame construction. Thus, at the height of the wooden structure of the construction, the garden facade and most of the front facade are composed of curtain facades and cladding in untreated Red Ceddar. The color of the material is intended to evolve over time in shade variations that will integrate with the colors of the existing facades of the other houses on the street.

What makes this project one-of-a-kind?
What makes this project unique can be seen inside the house. The primary idea of the architects is to give the feeling of living in a tree, with all the playful dimension that implies. The interior spaces follow one another in a work of sequence in half-levels, or rather in quarter-levels. Articulated by integrated furniture elements, the differences in floor heights make it possible to organize the living spaces in a very open way. The views and connections between the levels are multiple and varied, to the delight of the inhabitants,children and adults. There are very few walls and the gradual intimacy is created during the ascent of the platforms.