Couroubles

This interior design is part of the Embassy co-housing in Schaerbeek. Reuse has been an important aspect of the design of the common spaces. The inhabitants even organised the salvaging of tiles, door and other elements for reuse in situ, among themselves. Afterwards, one of the inhabitants, Céline, turned to Rotor for the furbishment of her apartment and the design of her kitchen and bathroom. Reused elements came from the site itself, were acquired through the professional retailers RotorDC and gebruiktebouwmaterialen.com, or were found elsewhere. 

The kitchen design process developed along several stages. Several options were initially possible: finding a second-hand kitchen to customise, finding materials to design a kitchen with from scratch,  or finding different elements to assemble into a whole. A mixture of the two latter options was eventually chosen. The kitchen's central island was entirely custom-made, from new wood panelling and reclaimed marble from the WTC Towers in Brussels. The wall element additionally features elements made from reclaimed stainless steel tables from professional restaurants. Details such as the sink, furniture handles and light fittings are equally second-hand. 

In the large bathroom, the furniture is custom-made on the basis of canary yellow coloured HPL-panels (trespa). Sinks, toilet and bidet are second hand, and the room is finished with reclaimed tiles yellow ('crème') tiles. An independent shower room is finished with in-situ salvaged deep blue tiles. Finally, a built-in cabinet was made from reused glass partitions and a silver ceiling element, which previously featured in our exhibition Life under a cherry tree.

This project was made possible thanks to the flexibility and openness of, and numerous exchanges with our contractor/carpenter: Treesign.

Rotor team

Sophie Boone

Contractor

Treesign