A humble, but vivid renovation in Koekelberg
The renovation of the house is characterised by two simple interventions: on the one hand, a revaluation of the main structure by freeing it from the various annexes. These are dismantled and serve as a local source of materials.
Studio Name: BC architects & studies
Structural engineer: Bureau Ranst
Area: Brussels, Belgium
Year: 2020
Location: Koekelberg
From here, the conversion begins, with our first thought always starting from the existing: using the current structures and recuperated building materials as much as possible. Thus, the bricks are used for the repair of the basement stairs or the finishing of the terrace. The marble is given new life in tablets or repairs of the fireplaces, door and cupboard tops are incorporated into new built-in cupboards or door openings.
For the finishing, we rely on the circular BC Materials clay plaster, which comes from the earth excavations of various building sites in and around Brussels. Each room is built as much as possible from the recycled material. Despite its new appearance, the house embraces the existing and the local.
Studio profile: BC architects & studies
BC is BC architects, studies and materials. BC stands for Brussels Cooperation and points to how BC grew – embedded within place and people. With 3 legal entities, BC starts from architecture, over research and expertise and experiment, towards material production and contracting. As a hybrid office, BC is maneuvering the boundaries of all these disciplines in a doers manner.
BC aims to execute projects in a critical and radical way. Critical means placing their work in a wider local and global context, touching on topics of the social, the ecological, the economical, the cultural, the temporal. Radical means envisioning long term effects of the building (process) and act responsibly on them now. The tension between being critical and being radical is one that feeds BC’s practice.
Having 3 legal entities representing one hybrid practice allows BC to inscribe itself in more phases of a construction process, being able to instill change in more profound ways – prototyping and iterating new economic and social models of building.
