From the architect. A home without boundaries: The project includes the conversion of a ground floor apartment, previously used for storage, into an accessible and wheelchair friendly living space for an accident victim. The result is an apartment that does not look at all like a dwelling for a physically challenged person. In fact, while many of the design solutions were inspired by necessity, they would all be welcome in any urban small loft.
To create an accessible residence, C.T. Architects changed the main entrance of the building block to create a ramp to the client’s front door and a new communal entrance for the upstairs neighbours.
The apartment itself was transformed completely. By clustering the wet areas and storage space into two compact volumes, the architect was able to bring natural light into the long and narrow canyon- like layout that is organised into a conventional succession of increasingly private spaces: living room and dining area near the main entrance, a central corridor – at a comfortable width for wheelchair passage – and with an efficient kitchen on one side and the bathroom on the other side, and then the bedroom/study in the rear.
Sliding glass doors lead from the bedroom/study onto a small back terrace. A sense of unity and calm is created by using white walls and ceilings combined with rough-sawn oak floors and sliding doors hiding the storage space, bathroom and toilet.
He designed the dining table with built-in shelves at both ends and a flexible swing-arm wall lamp above this table (also presented at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan). In the bedroom, Nick Ceulemans designed the double-duty bed with a desk at its head, an adjacent wall of bookshelves and a hybrid light fixture/electrical hub that swivels to illuminate both bed and work surface and to provide outlets at a convenient height for the user.
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