a+t architecture publishers

The progressive loss of industrial activities in the city centres of large American cities has resulted in a new concept in living: the loft. In this case in the courtyard of a downtown Brussels block, work was undertaken on a former workshop which has been cleared to explore the new codes of domestic life.

Here, inside, ornament is not an add-on to the shape but becomes part of the material itself. The new horizontal surfaces are plain while one can make out the rough patterns from the formwork and from the polishing on the vertical surfaces. The ambiguity of the raw concrete and the brickwork on the one hand and the smoother sensation of the other materials clash with the traditional codes of domesticity, however, they adapt better to the spatial freedom which underlies this independence between structure and filler.

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