Woninguitbreiding

A new volume with several storeys replaces the traditional elongated ground-floor extension of an existing terraced house. The ‘rear’ house is conceived as an independent volume that is related in several ways to the existing house, which thereby becomes the ‘front house’. One sees that the outline of the roof of the existing house is repeated in the new volume – and as such, the building plays with the limits of urban planning rules. The side wall of the rear house, which duplicates the typical pointed roof, is just as closed as the existing side wall, whereas the old blank side wall is incorporated into a composition of outlines. This new side wall is turned inwards, which brings light into the front house and provides a view through the rear wall. In this way, the front and rear houses lean against each other like twins.

Author: Caroline Voet. This text has been published in the Architecture Review Flanders N°11. Embedded Architecture.