Renovation

The way children perceive space may be slightly different from how we adults perceive it. That’s what I thought as I casually watched the client’s daughters play with toys. Toy furniture could no longer fit inside the red-roofed house, so they gathered up the tables and refrigerators that were sticking out and arranged them on the flooring. Sometimes, it became a dining room under the blue sky or a study room where children came home from school and did their homework together. They also brought Lego blocks and other toys, and the improvised room continued to expand. It was a one-day house for a family drawn by children who cannot read blueprints.

The project consists of transforming an old tenement apartment characteristic of the Cordón neighborhood into a contemporary, mixed, and flexible space where a Digital Dentistry academy would operate. 

“Xiaotang No.12,” a Beijing inner-city renovation project in Xiaotang Hutong, stands amidst the few remaining old neighborhoods. Despite being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of commercial society on one side, this project enjoys a rare tranquility. Historically, Xiaotang Hutong originated during the Republican era and was documented as Chuantangmen in “Yandu Congkao.” In 1965, it was officially named Xiaotang Hutong. The hutong is narrow and winding, often overlooked by passersby. The surroundings showcase the organic growth and vibrant atmosphere of the old city, featuring makeshift structures, government utility pipelines, and evolving courtyard architecture from different periods, creating a collage of urban vitality.

How can a 200-year-old Maisäß be remodeled into a hotel with a restaurant, suites and a wellness area? The “Am Holand” hotel complex can be seen from afar. Two buildings with a gable roof and a connecting building are located on a south-facing slope above the village. The western building – a wooden structure that is over 200 years old – the connecting building and the eastern structure have been renovated and expanded in three construction phases. Architecturally, the focus is on opening and expanding the rooms. This is to enhance the view and the connection to the wonderful landscape and to offer the guest a spacious, coherent spatial structure.

Along the Sint-Gillislaan in Dendermonde sits a plot with a remarkable history. In the nineteenth century, a stately townhouse is said to have been owned by the then mayor Beelaert (1755-1935) and acted as a residence of the British captain Alexander Cavailé Mercer during the Waterloo campaign. From the turn of the century onwards, the building was used as a meeting space and a café by a local theater group, which converted the spacious rear building with its cast-iron truss structure into a theater hall. Later, the building was converted into a home and the rear extension into a shop, most recently the garden and flower shop called ’t Groene Genoegen.