The house is located in Rixensart, in a street presenting buildings with various volumes and alignments; the plot of land is long and narrow; urban model here is an alternation of intermediate and residential houses. The narrowness of the ground is reinforced by neighbouring buildings located at about two meters from the dividing limit.
Designed as a single family home, 150 m2 for living and 60 m2 sheltering a photographer studio, the house is nowadays used as a two-family dwelling and keeps its photo studio.
It has been shaped as a camera lens open on the valley and taking advantage of the specific proportions of the plot of land.
Front and back façades are large windows or wide doors whereas side faces show smaller openings in order to respect the neighbours’ privacy. To go into the house, one needs to walk along the large slant workshop wall, corresponding to the focal part of the camera. A piece of furniture separates the house itself from the studio; the studio can open itself more widely, with a view to enlarge the photographer’s perspective. As there is no wall parallel to the street, the photographer can use as background either the street or the garden, or even his home. When the garage door in cortens steel is wide open, the visitor is invited to enter the house which then becomes an exhibition gallery. Internal limits are underlined by a break, pieces of furniture and pivoting walls. The kitchen is made with a piece of furniture slipped under the concrete slab that has been left visible.
The various levels of the façade as well as the different volumes have been brought into alignment with neighbouring houses. The project integrates a new building in the area altogether respecting its evolution.
Contemporary architecture is integrated in the neighbourhood thanks to chosen materials and colours and becomes a link between two buildings of very divergent styles.