tmSN House / BLAF Architecten

tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Exterior PhotographytmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Exterior PhotographytmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Interior Photography, Shelving, Beam, WindowstmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Exterior Photography, Brick, FacadetmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - More Images+ 15

Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
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tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Exterior Photography
© Stijn Bollaert

Text description provided by the architects. A typical challenge for Belgian cities today is to make their 19th and early 20th-century urban fabric more liveable and sustainable, without driving away all economic or manufacturing activities. Most of these areas are characterized by a mix of industry and housing, high land occupation, hardening of open space, and soil pollution. Today most of the industry has moved away from these areas and the infrastructure over time has been parcelled out to small-scale private owners. “Pitting” is one of the strategies that many cities include in their urban policies for these areas, trying to avoid tabula rasa. The tmSN house does so in a radical way.

tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Exterior Photography
© Stijn Bollaert

BLAF has since long been working on the idea of the casco as a sustainable format for architecture. In this case, the casco was a given. The L-shaped plot was almost 100% occupied. The building facing the street was a house, and all the other buildings behind it were manufacturing spaces.

tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Interior Photography, Living Room, Table, Chair, Shelving, Windows, Beam
© Stijn Bollaert
tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Image 16 of 20
Ground floor plan
tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Interior Photography, Shelving, Beam, Windows
© Stijn Bollaert

With surgical precision, the least valuable parts were cut away to generate light and open space on the plot. The most valuable parts were consolidated and made empty and amenable. This “pitting” operation created a small “Hinterhof”, an ideal environment for a family home. The house facing the street was refurbished as a workspace (group practice for psychiatry).

tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Interior Photography, Shelving, Table, Beam, Chair
© Stijn Bollaert
tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Interior Photography, Bedroom, Beam
© Stijn Bollaert

Like a snail in its shell, a new timber frame construction was fitted into these casco’s, making an interior space for a home. The intermediate spaces between the casco and the timber frame home generate new relations between inside and outside, help to organize the program on the plot and make the raw brick of the casco visible from the interior.

tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Chair, Windows, Beam
© Stijn Bollaert

The open spaces that were created are used for water management and greenery. They help in fighting urban heat stress and increase biodiversity.

tmSN House  / BLAF Architecten - Exterior Photography, Brick, Facade
© Stijn Bollaert

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Cite: "tmSN House / BLAF Architecten" 26 Dec 2022. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/951851/tmsn-house-blaf-architecten> ISSN 0719-8884

© Stijn Bollaert

tmSN比利时私宅 / BLAF Architecten

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