Marc van Schuylenbergh

Conversion of Van Schuylenbergh House

Aalst, Begium

Located in a busy street in the Belgian town of Aalst, the architect Van Schuylenberg transformed a century-old worker's dwelling into his own home.
In addition to cleaning the facades and opening new windows in the old building, the architect raised a new, log narrow volume the old building, the architect raised a new, long narrow volume that is attached to the old one through an intermediant space in the form of a wedge that follows the curve of the site. This intermediante space is an area of transit in the interior that is well lit from above. The division between the old wing and the new wing is shown by means of a low curving wall.
In the old volume the pur language of the modern intervention is combined with respect for the singularity of some existing elrments, such as floor tiles, window frames, fragments of rustic wall face and the old staircase.
The distribution of the rooms has hardly been changed: there are two bedrooms, one situated behind the other, a narrow hall and a staircase.
Another of the most important elements of the new scheme is a raised walkway that communicates the main bedroom with its bathroom, both of which are located on the first floor over each of the two volumes of the dwelling.