Weathered brick and a tiled roof give this Belgian secure few clues concerning the workplace inside, the place reaching a desk beneath the rafters means strolling up a chunk of furnishings constructed from stacked timber.
Designed by Studio Farris Architects, the conversion locations a freestanding wood construction throughout the former secure’s open quantity. Its projecting beams maintain books, kind stair treads, and help a workspace above a gathering space.
Understanding that association takes multiple view, as a result of the cabinets conceal components of the staircase and the higher platform hides what occurs beneath it. Both sides reveals one other use for wooden that first seems to be an outsized stack of beams.
Restored brickwork conceals the change inside
Small home windows, brick partitions, and the pitched roof retain the constructing’s agricultural character. Positioned in West Flanders, the previous secure covers 100 sq. meters, with a restored façade and new openings that deliver daylight into the workplace.
Via the big glazed opening, a white assembly desk and sections of timber provide the primary glimpse of the conversion. The desks stay above that sightline, leaving the outside view to disclose a part of the venture with out explaining its association.
Studio Farris fitted a brand new inside shell throughout the unique quantity, following the roof’s form and leaving a tall house across the central furnishings.
Thick timber turns into storage by the gaps between beams
Books occupy openings between wood lengths stacked at totally different depths, whereas uncovered beam ends present grain and cracks throughout their broad faces. Some sections venture into the room; others cease brief, creating ledges and recesses and not using a grid of matching cabinets.
Seen from this aspect, the construction reads as storage with an uncommon quantity of wooden round it. Books present a way of scale, making the beams look bigger than the shelf compartments they create.
The explanation for that scale comes into view across the nook, the place the stack begins to rise in steps.
Strolling across the bookshelf reveals the route upstairs
Broad timber treads prolong from the construction and climb towards the higher workspace, with books nonetheless seen alongside the aspect. The steps belong to the identical association because the cabinets, so there isn’t any separate staircase to elucidate how the workplace connects to the ground under.
As a substitute of including a traditional additional ground, Studio Farris launched this furnishings construction on the middle of the plan. Its stepped profile combines entry and storage inside one footprint, leaving house to maneuver round it.
Huge views reveal the climb from ground to platform, whereas shut views present how the beam ends overlap beside the steps. What appeared like an irregular stack now has a route by it.
Beneath the platform, timber defines a spot to satisfy
White chairs encompass a spherical desk beneath the elevated workplace, the place wood joists create a decrease ceiling throughout the secure’s tall inside. Cabinets border the assembly house, giving it an edge whereas holding it open to the room.
A big window faces the agricultural panorama, inserting the desk beside an outward view reasonably than enclosing it beneath the platform. The timber accommodates work above and conferences under, with the staircase and bookshelves connecting these makes use of.
Upstairs, the furnishings turns into the workplace ground
Two desks sit beneath the pitched roof, with skylights bringing daylight to the higher workspace. From right here, a lot of the shelving and staircase disappears under the platform, and the timber reads as the bottom of the workplace reasonably than an object standing inside it.
The roof stays open above the desks, preserving a view throughout the secure’s unique quantity. Returning downstairs reverses that impression, revealing the thick beams, storage gaps, and stair treads that made the workspace attainable.
Would you mix your staircase, bookshelves, and workspace in a single construction, or hold them separate?
Accomplished in January 2016, Steady in West Flanders was photographed by Koen Van Damme.
