From Two Apartments to a Family Home: House Y&A in Mortsel by Memo Architectuur.

Typical to Belgium’s housing stock are long, narrow homes attached on both sides to their neighbours. However, when I look at the interiors of Memo Architectuur’s recent renovation to this family home in Mortsel, I can’t help but think it gives off the feeling of apartment living, but in a full-sized home.

Spacious enough to hold a growing family of four, this home has generous living spaces and a very homely connection to its rear garden. Yet, many of its spaces seem like they could be pulled out of a magazine under the ‘small footprint living’ section. So what is it about House Y&A that gives off this feeling?

When the owners purchased the home during the pandemic, they fell in love with the former multi-family dwelling without ever setting foot inside. Originally a two-storey building, it was split into two apartments. “[It was] a dilapidated structure with a charming facade”, explains the team at Memo Architectuur, who transformed the crumbling residence into a highly functional 240-square-meter family home.

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Adding a floor atop the original two apartments allowed Memo Architectuur to shift all of the sleeping premises outside of the original footprint. Sitting on the penthouse floor, the main bedroom, along with two kids’ rooms, each has large windows with views of either the two oak trees in the backyard or the busy Mostel street outside. Sandwiched between the parents and children are a series of bathrooms. A smaller one for the kids to share, and another, rather luxurious bathing area, which the parents use as a thoroughfare into their main bedroom.

On the floors below is the office, living area and dining zone. Making the most out of its skinny 4.5m width, all joinery straps itself to the external party walls, leaving the rooms as big as possible for living. Perhaps this is another reason House Y&A carries the feeling of apartment living; several joinery units seem to work hard in maximising storage space in an otherwise tight squeeze of a house. Vanities in bathrooms are pushed to the external walls, and the kitchen is a long linear stretch of working zone, spanning almost half the house’s length!

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There’s something about long skinny homes that always force architects to best use circulation to their advantage. At House Y&A, the staircase spans three floors; unlike the original stairway in the home that was glued to a side wall, the new circular stair is placed in the centre of the block, spiralling up a large void space which ensures the light can flood into the otherwise dark spaces.

Alongside giving the apartment great natural light, the spiral stair stands as a token of classic small-footprint living, often being used in tight and hard-to-configure places. It’s yet another nod towards apartment living that works well in this modern family home.

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[Images courtesy of Memo Architectuur. Photography by Evenbeeld.]