Based in their 1970s brutalist house, designer Bram Kerkhofs and network architect Lore Baeyens live together in Leuven, outside Brussels. The creative duo acquired Villa Stuyven, their 20th-century concrete home in the residential neighbourhood of Holsbeek, and have transformed it into a combination of family house, artistic residency and studio.
A reimagined 1970s brutalist house
Designed by local architects Vanderbiest & Reynaert in 1970 for the artist and philosopher Jef Stuyven, the structure has been thoroughly overhauled to accommodate Kerkhofs’s studio, together with a new guest house component for artistic residencies, held in collaboration with Leuven’s Cas-co art space organisation.
Villa Stuyven is a classic slice of Belgian brutalist architecture, created during a fertile period of residential design that has withstood the test of time and continues to be much sought after. The concrete house is embedded in the forest, with board-marked internal and external walls paired with dark window frames, white masonry internal walls and dark ceramic tiles. The large windows frame beautiful views of a garden that blends seamlessly with the woodland.
At entrance level, the house is arranged over two-storeys; the site slopes up to a single storey at the rear, giving it a very different visual character. The renovation has stayed true to the original materials palette, with the addition of oak flooring to complete the concrete ceilings found throughout.
Kerkhofs trained as a goldsmith, and his furniture and accessories combine metalworking with playful architectural forms, from the Coil cabinetry to ‘Les Gaufres’, a collection of modular candleholders inspired by Belgian waffles.
The house now provides a solid, uncompromising backdrop for both Kerkhofs’ own work and the couple’s accumulation of vintage furniture pieces.
The designer’s workspace occupies Stuyven’s old art studio, and the original house’s six-bedroom layout provides ample space for the visiting creatives.
