In the early 1970s, the visionary Mr Brachfeld ordered the building of the Riverside Tower on Antwerp’s Left Bank (Linkeroever). The tower, a concrete high rise building of 20 levels hinting to Le Corbusier’s Unité d’habitation in Marseille, respects the CIAM-indebted modernism of his own 1932 master plan while its intricate details reflect the contemporaneous spirit of a late Brutalism. Our renovation project deals with a duplex apartment on the 13th and 14th floor, featuring overwhelming views and tremendous luminosity in the living space.

The apartment has a spacious and intelligent layout with a panoramic view of the harbour and skyline. The double-height space of the living room offers ample living space while the two bedrooms on the upper level ensure privacy. Our first priority was to emphasise the apartment’s visual axis and to create a see-through apartment. We opened up the bathroom on both sides to offer is a fluid space with a maximal architectural transparency. A tactile link between inside and outside is established at 42 meters above the ground by enjoying the same view from the bathtub as on the sofa.

Through the subtle transformation of the existing layout and the respectful addition of a few crucial new elements, this project emphasises the qualities of the existing architecture while creating a distinctive contemporary lifestyle.