Design by Vincent Van Duysen
Photography by Jose Manuel Alorda and Kasia Gatkowska
Source: Vincent Van Duysen
Antwerp, Belgium
VVD II begins with subtraction. Vincent Van Duysen took an old Antwerp townhouse that had been used as notaries' offices and stripped it back until light, proportion, and a few exact materials could carry the whole house. The reopened courtyard is the key move. In the photographs, its black steel glazing turns the void into a bright interior facade, sending daylight into the stair hall, kitchen, and reception room while keeping the plan tightly ordered.
What follows is not minimalism as blankness, but as calibration. The original staircase was scoured, sanded, and simplified into a continuous white sweep, still recognizably traditional in profile but sharpened almost to abstraction. Pale poplar wide-board floors keep the rooms warm without interrupting the quiet envelope of off-white plaster. In the kitchen, the enormous black La Cornue cooker sits inside a square-tiled niche like a piece of built-in equipment from another era; a round black table and heavy timber chairs give the room the weight of an old Flemish service space, even as the detailing stays spare.
Van Duysen's material contrasts are restrained but tactile. Smooth natural stone, roughly woven textiles, cane seats, darkened metal, and deep window recesses keep the house from becoming too immaculate. Upstairs, a wall of bookshelves is built around the bed, and the white marble bathtub is given the status of an object in its own tall room. Outside, the former tarmac parking area was remade as a severe urban garden with a square pool in Belgian blue stone, extending the same sense of discipline beyond the walls.
What makes VVD II endure is the friction between rigor and touch. Bespoke handles, hinges, and fittings are chosen less for novelty than for their sense of having belonged to architecture for a long time. The result is a townhouse that feels edited rather than decorated, severe at first glance but deeply sensual once the eye adjusts to its surfaces, weight, and light.
Tags: Vincent Van Duysen, Antwerp, Belgium, Townhouse
