With House Paul in Antwerp, Made Architects reimagine the bourgeois home

The House PAUL project was carried out by MADE architects in a district south of Antwerp. 
Guiding every design choice is first and foremost the desire to create a direct and constant relationship between the interior and the exterior, modulating a space that seems to unfold seamlessly from one environment to another, and creating a multiplicity of dynamic spatial perspectives. The strength of the project lies in the way it completely reimagines the bourgeois home, developing the three levels of the property in a contemporary way, and demonstrating how the existing structure and the new intervention can coexist in a balanced synthesis, functional and adaptable to future transformations.

The lower level hosts the living areas, and from the street front to the inner garden, all the environments follow one another in a row: a main living room, a small central and passageway study room, through which the dining room and kitchen can be reached. These two rooms are organized in an open space that is visually open to the garden thanks to two large French doors, gradually flowing towards the outside through a minimalist pergola, creating an indoor-outdoor sequence made of pauses and small places to rest and shelter.

The upper floors are specifically for sleeping areas and services, as well as secondary open spaces, like balconies and a small roof garden, which ensure at each level a dialogue with the outdoors. In detail, the ground floor and second floor are connected by a spiral staircase also characterized by an essential aesthetic, in structure and colors, while the third floor is autonomous and features a room with an open kitchen, dining table and a living corner, in addition to the bedroom and bathroom. An independent staircase serves all levels of the property, thus also ensuring the possibility in the future to separate the first two floors to create separate apartments.

While the main façade, with its classic image of a traditional mansion, proves to be in full antithesis with the rear façade, which is organic and asymmetrical, made up of material juxtapositions, the interiors are overtly contemporary in their choice of materials and colors.
The bright yellow coating of the spiral staircase is echoed in the frames of the two large glazed doors overlooking the garden and in all the other windows; the blue-gray-toned kitchen recalls the tiles of the main bathroom, while the natural texture of wood and concrete characterizes floors and ceilings.

A strong sense of spatial unity is perceived above all thanks to the natural lighting that radiates from each room, and thanks to the opaque glass partitions chosen to divide the sleeping areas, which allow light to filter through while equally preserving a sense of intimacy.