FORM / STUDIO

01 / 12Bruges, BelgiumResidential2026

Residence DL

Two brick volumes on a former builder’s yard, one held tight to the street and one stepped back around a walled terrace.

Two stepped volumes of pale red long-format brick against a clear sky.

A corner plot outside the old ring, left empty when a builder’s yard closed. The house takes its colour from the warehouse wall next door and its height from the terrace it joins.

Location
Bruges, Belgium
Year
2026
Project type
Residential
Status
Completed
Surface area
212 m²
Scope
New build, interiors, fixed joinery
Structure
Bureau T. (fictional)
Landscape
Studio H. (fictional)

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

Site

The plot sits where a terrace of 1930s houses ends and a light-industrial street begins. Planning asked for a building no taller than the eaves next door. The owners asked for a garden that could not be overlooked. Both were answered by the same move: pull the living rooms back from the corner and put a walled terrace in the space that is left.

The brick was matched to the old warehouse across the yard rather than to the houses, which gives the corner a harder edge than the street expects.

A wide red brick wall with two small barred windows and a drainpipe.
Fig. 1 The neighbouring warehouse wall, which set the brick colour.
A dark steel handrail running diagonally across a sand-coloured brick wall.
Fig. 2 Stair hall. A steel flat carries the handrail along the bond.
A white stair hall with bands of sunlight through a slatted screen and an oak shelf.
Fig. 3 Stair hall at ten in the morning. The timber screen is the only shading on this elevation.
D01Ground floorPlanIllustrative drawing
Ground floor: illustrative floor planIllustrative plan of about 14.00 by 10.60 metres containing Entrance, Cloakroom, Stair hall, Kitchen, Dining, Living. The numbered key beside the drawing lists each room.Walled terrace1234562.602.404.604.4014.003.201.805.60AAN05 m
  1. 1Entrance7.6 m²
  2. 2Cloakroom4.2 m²
  3. 3Stair hall11.1 m²
  4. 4Kitchen21.9 m²
  5. 5Dining20.9 m²
  6. 6Living48.7 m²

Light

The kitchen is the darkest room on paper: it sits in the middle of the plan, with a wall on the north side. A rooflight along that wall washes the plaster from above, so the room is brightest where it would otherwise be flattest. The section was fixed around this move before the plan was resolved.

D02Section A–ASectionIllustrative drawing
Section A–A: illustrative sectionIllustrative section cut through the building, 5.7 metres to the highest point.Stair hallBedroomKitchenDining+0.00+3.00+4.10+5.7005 m
The shadow of a window frame cast across a grey plaster wall.
Fig. 4 Lime plaster, living room, late afternoon.
Soft window light falling on a pale plaster wall.
Fig. 5 Reflected light on the kitchen wall.
Sunlight crossing an oak board floor in front of a white door.
Fig. 6 Oak boards run the length of the ground floor.

Material schedule

  1. M01

    Long-format brick

    All external walls, window reveals

    One colour, laid stretcher bond with a raked joint, so the corners read as folded rather than built up.

  2. M02

    Lime plaster

    Stair hall, kitchen, living

    Trowelled by hand and left unpainted. Daylight shows the slight unevenness, which is the point.

  3. M03

    Solid oak

    Floors, sideboards, stair treads

    Oiled, not lacquered. The boards run the length of the plan to lengthen the short rooms.

A person walking past a freestanding oak and white cabinet against a white backdrop.
Fig. 7 One of two freestanding oak units, built off site and walked into place.