Studio mxmxm

Project description:
The owners of this art-deco-styled house, just outside the city center of Bruges, wanted to tackle some technical and spatial problems with their house. The first was to introduce a toilet for visitors on the ground floor but without losing any spatial qualities. The solution came in reworking the already existing technical cabinet in the entrance. Although the cabinet could not be very wide it was possible to fit a toilet space in there. The new cabinet is completely made out of veneer wood panels giving it a solid and uniform impression. The door is subtly incorporated by making it the complete height of the cabinet and giving it a unique door handle. The short side is designed as an open wardrobe giving it an added function.

The second problem was to make the outside staircase to the basement more waterproof. By recladding the staircase with new tiles but also creating a canopy above it both the ground and rainwater could be kept out. The canopy also created a new kind of space between the living room and dining room, somewhere between in- and outside. In order not to take away any natural daylight the canopy is completely transparent with glass and a white steel structure. A balustrade, which runs crooked to make enough space to open the double doors, shields the opening to the basement. The floor under the canopy is made out of big concrete tiles, of 1 by 1 meter, in an anthracite color mimicking the grid of the white steel structure.

Both interventions tackled the problems but added also a new extra functional or spatial value to the house.