FORM / STUDIO

04 / 12Bruges, BelgiumRenovation2025

Canal House

Four storeys and one line of sight, from the canal windows through to a new garden room at the back.

A view through a pair of tall doors along a line of rooms with herringbone parquet.

A merchant’s house, six metres wide and fourteen deep, reopened along its length. Most of the work is invisible: new heating, wiring and drainage threaded through old floors without lifting the parquet more than once.

Location
Bruges, Belgium
Year
2025
Project type
Renovation
Status
Completed
Surface area
326 m²
Scope
Full renovation, restoration, new services, garden room
Heritage adviser
Bureau A. (fictional)
Structure
Bureau T. (fictional)

Fictional project. Photographs are illustrative stock and do not show a building by FORM Studio.

Existing building

Over a century of subdivision had closed the doors between the rooms. Taking out one wall and two partitions restored a single line of sight from the canal to the garden, and most of the parquet turned out to be intact beneath later floor finishes.

We kept the plan, the windows and the ceiling heights. What changed is how the house is lit, heated and entered.

D01SiteSite planIllustrative drawing
Site: illustrative site planIllustrative site plan showing the building in black among 6 neighbouring volumes and Canal.CanalN010 m
A high-ceilinged room with a black dining table, a chandelier and three tall windows.
Fig. 1 First-floor room with the three canal windows. The chandelier stayed; everything else was reconsidered.

The most ambitious decision in this project was to make very little of it visible.

Sunlight across a herringbone floor by an open door and a small plant.
Fig. 2 Rear room, morning.
An unmade bed beneath a tall window with linen curtains and an iron balcony.
Fig. 3 Second-floor bedroom.
A panelled room with antique furniture and a tall mirror, seen through a doorway.
Fig. 4 Service stair landing.
Fig. 5 Parquet after relaying. Each panel returned to its original position.
D02Ground floorPlanIllustrative drawing
Ground floor: illustrative floor planIllustrative plan of about 6.40 by 19.20 metres containing Salon, Hall, Stair, Dining room. The numbered key beside the drawing lists each room.Garden12342.004.406.405.603.605.005.00AAN05 m
  1. 1Salon34.4 m²
  2. 2Hall6.5 m²
  3. 3Stair14.9 m²
  4. 4Dining room30.6 m²

Addition

At the back, a low room replaces a lean-to. Its flat roof stops below the first-floor sills, and a rooflight along the old wall keeps the masonry visibly separate from the new work. Rainwater and services run in a shallow trench beneath it, which is the only place the building was dug into.

D03Section A–ASectionIllustrative drawing
Section A–A: illustrative sectionIllustrative section cut through the building, 13.8 metres to the highest point, with the retained structure shown in grey.SalonLibraryBedroom-2.20+0.00+2.60+3.90+7.30+10.2005 m■ Retained ■ New
A long living room with white walls, tall windows and a glazed steel screen.
Fig. 6 Second floor. A steel and glass screen divides the long room without closing it.

Material schedule

  1. M01

    Oak parquet

    Ground and first floors

    Herringbone, numbered and lifted panel by panel, then relaid over underfloor heating.

  2. M02

    Lime plaster

    All retained walls

    Modern gypsum was removed so the masonry can dry. The walls were allowed to dry for one winter before painting.

  3. M03

    Linen

    Curtains, street rooms

    Heavy and unlined on the upper floors, so the windows keep their shape and the street keeps its distance.