Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

The Narrow House

This is a project by Bassam El Okeily, Architect and it is located at Bilzen, Belgium. There are seven images for The Narrow House.

: © Tim van De Velde

Project images

Designer's statement

It’s a narrow house (530 cm) in a small city called Bilzen, near the Holland frontier.

It’s my first house, and the building master are a couple in their sixties. The gentleman is passion by the history of art while his wife is an artist.

The house has a closed ground floor exterior (entrance & garage) topped by a total transparency in glass. The display window reveals two balconies in skewed positions projection from a white façade.

The lower balcony contains a reading corner for a library belonging to the gentleman of the house, while providing him with a sheltered view of the street. The upper balcony accommodates an artist’s studio, the private domain of his wife. Blue light turn the façade into a spectacular light sculpture after dark.

It’s a narrow house in a narrow street, which offers the tale of a man, a woman and their passion.

Architecture become a pretext to chair something else than the sidewalk. A house is a space to live; it could also be a place to remain.