Peeking at other renovation projects
Today was "De Vlaamse Renovatiedag" (= The Flemish Renovationday). That day you can visit multiple renovation projects in the neighbourhood. 2 years ago Sofie and I went to see some renovated houses around Ghent and I really saw some cool stuff! Houses merged together, huge void spaces, intransparant glass outer walls, floating stairs, pivoting doors/walls, accordeon glass doors (which we had already chosen at that moment anyway, but nice to see it confirmed in other modern renovation projects), ....
This time we went to see some projects in Leuven. It wasn't so inspirational for me as last time, but that's probably because it was the second time and we needed less inspiration anyway.
It's funny how different people approach it in different ways: some guide you around in a construction site where your imagination still needs to work to make it all come together, others casually let all the people look around while hanging up some plans on the wall, while in other houses the architects are prominently promoting themselves with cards and photomaterial of other projects and with publications in all kinds of books, while others gave every visitor a free icecream!
What they all have in common though is: partly rebuilding the backside with lots of glass windows, big sliding doors or accordeon doors towards the garden, skylights, open staircases or at least a central (industrial) staircase, void spaces across floors bringing the light across the house, floating floors, minimalistic interior, ... I wonder if there is any classic less modernistic renovations going on, or do they simply do not take part in initiatives like these? If not, I think we Flemish have a lot of style :p.
It's all about opening up the old seperate little rooms, brining light across the entire house, connecting spaces, ...
All in all, such visits to other renovations were also a nice ego booster for myself. Because I seriously think our house would fit in the row of houses we've visited. It wouldn't be the most extravagant, but it would fit in. When I stated this, I immediately got into a discussion with Jan that I wanted people running in our house next year etc... That's not what I wanted to say, although I wouldn't mind that during a couple of hours. But I don't need to have my house in architecture books or something...I can already brag on here ;). I am just a bit proud and that's ok, isn't it?
....And it's also nice to see that other people with extravagant houses also have little painting errors :p.
This time we went to see some projects in Leuven. It wasn't so inspirational for me as last time, but that's probably because it was the second time and we needed less inspiration anyway.
It's funny how different people approach it in different ways: some guide you around in a construction site where your imagination still needs to work to make it all come together, others casually let all the people look around while hanging up some plans on the wall, while in other houses the architects are prominently promoting themselves with cards and photomaterial of other projects and with publications in all kinds of books, while others gave every visitor a free icecream!
What they all have in common though is: partly rebuilding the backside with lots of glass windows, big sliding doors or accordeon doors towards the garden, skylights, open staircases or at least a central (industrial) staircase, void spaces across floors bringing the light across the house, floating floors, minimalistic interior, ... I wonder if there is any classic less modernistic renovations going on, or do they simply do not take part in initiatives like these? If not, I think we Flemish have a lot of style :p.
It's all about opening up the old seperate little rooms, brining light across the entire house, connecting spaces, ...
All in all, such visits to other renovations were also a nice ego booster for myself. Because I seriously think our house would fit in the row of houses we've visited. It wouldn't be the most extravagant, but it would fit in. When I stated this, I immediately got into a discussion with Jan that I wanted people running in our house next year etc... That's not what I wanted to say, although I wouldn't mind that during a couple of hours. But I don't need to have my house in architecture books or something...I can already brag on here ;). I am just a bit proud and that's ok, isn't it?
....And it's also nice to see that other people with extravagant houses also have little painting errors :p.
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