Demo site: brand, address, reviews and figures are made up. Made by Matthias Pauwels. ← Back
← Matthias’s siteArchitecture of the territory: residential, cultural, institutional. We build with the climate, never against it. From Brussels to the Ardennes, since 2012.
Founded in 2012 in Saint-Gilles, Atelier Nord practises an architecture of restraint. Every project begins with a patient reading of the site: the run of the sun in January, the westerly rain on a slate roof, the sound of a river under mist. The ground decides more than the client thinks, and that is just as well.
From the single-family house to the neighbourhood library, we hold the same conviction: timber from here, concrete where it earns its place, details held. Our sites run from Brussels to the Ardennes, with craftspeople we know by first name. Nothing pretending to be anything other than what it is.
A long house set in a fold of the ground, drawn back from a beech wood. The plan stretches east to west to catch the low winter light; the charred spruce cladding all but disappears between the trunks. Three bays, one corridor of light, no wasted space. BREEAM Excellent certified.
A visitor pavilion for an outdoor centre: one shallow-pitched roof carried on glulam frames, open to the lake on both sides. Wood-heated, naturally ventilated eight months of the year. Plumb Line award, 2022.
Extension and complete rework of a 1960s neighbourhood library. A stepped, light-filled nave links two levels of collections; the atrium cuts a cylinder of light through the centre of the plan. Public competition by the commune, first prize, then the Fair Plan Prize in 2024.
145 m² under a single matt black gable. Inside, one volume of spruce plywood, floor to ridge. An experiment in reduction: two materials, one colour, not a single corridor. Light & Matter Grand Prize, Housing category, 2023.
Conversion of a 1912 town house into a through-plan family home. A folded steel stair links three half-levels around a light well; the original brick façade is left untouched, restored joint by joint. Fair Plan Prize, 2021.
Conversion of a century-old sawmill into a printmaking centre. The existing north-light sheds are kept and insulated from outside; a single new gesture (a signal-red steel portal) marks the entrance. Plumb Line award, 2020.
Before the first line, six weeks of watching. Topographic surveys, orientations, prevailing winds, the memory of the place. We draw what the ground has already begun.
At 50° of latitude, January light comes in almost horizontally. We draw the openings for it: high to the south, rare to the north, never decorative.
Ardennes spruce, concrete left raw, galvanised steel. Materials that age honestly and can be repaired locally: nothing pretending to be anything other than what it is.
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Thank you. We read every enquiry ourselves and reply within two working days. If your site speaks to us as much as it does to you, the first meeting happens at the studio, around the models.
— The Atelier Nord team, Saint-Gilles