ROSES / CHOUX
LOCATION
Brussels, Belgium
CLIENT
Deka Immobilière
PARTNERS
-
ARTIST
-
PROJET
2001 - 2004
CONSTRUCTION
2003 - 2004
AREA
2,000 sqm
CONTEXT
offices
SETTING
city centre
The renovated building is partly offices, and partly housing. Keeping the stairwells in their original position, as well as conserving the load-bearing partitions, the floors on the upper storeys and the existing arches wherever their condition allowed, and in compliance with the fire prevention rules, enabled the historic fabric and authenticity of these buildings to be preserved. The conversion of the interior also enabled the dilapidated inner courtyards behind this block, which were blocked in by high partition walls, to be put to good use: an atrium was created there, which provides the internal connections within the building via walkways linking the various buildings, in a sober, contemporary language, whose streamlined textures, colours and shapes provide a soothing contrast with the old building. Finally, the addition of a new adjoining building, extending an old isolated ground floor, has repaired the urban fabric on the fringes of Place des Martyrs. Now that it adopts the building outline that used to exist on this site, it restores the typology of the rue aux Choux.