Atelier Thomas Lerooy

Thomas Lerooy’s studio is even more analogous with his work, although this approach was not deliberate. The architectural concept devised by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen consists of slipping a glass volume under the existing structure. The functions are differentiated via the insertion of two smaller glass volumes in the main space. This meticulous system of ‘a box within a box’ was not inspired by the artist’s work but by the skyscraper at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. More precisely, it is informed by the vertical distribution of functions via the different surface levels in the aforementioned design. This logic has here been implemented horizontally: the studio steadily widens along a length of 60 metres, following the rhythm of the existing structure, and within each incremental expansion, a glass box has been inserted. The architects have also uncoupled the studio from the building on the street level so that it can be seen as an object from the entrance and the garden, and they have relied upon a limited palette of materials — concrete, glass and aluminium — to underline this concept.

This text is based on an article by Audrey Contesse, published in Flanders Architectural Review N°12: Tailored Architecture.