The Architect’s House: Bram Van Cauter’s Brutalist Duplex in Antwerp Lives Inside Belgian Modernism's Mind

“To inhabit a building is to inhabit the architect’s mind,” said Le Corbusier, and it is not unusual for architects to inhabit other architects’ work whose design philosophy they respect and admire, as a quite literal way to dwell within their inward way of thought.

Embodying such an approach, architect Bram Van Cauter, co-founder of Studio Okami, reinterprets Belgian modernist heritage as a contemporary home. Perched across the 13th and 14th floors of Antwerp’s iconic Riverside Tower, designed in the 1970s by renowned modernist architects Léon Stynen and Paul De Meyer, the 230 sqm Brutalist duplex that Van Cauter calls home is far more than a dwelling. It is an active form of architectural reflection—a living dialogue across generations of modern design, a domestic concrete experience unfolding with raw grace around a sky-blue spiral metal staircase.

-by Melina Arvaniti-Pollatou

“Riverside Tower, a high-rise development located in the bend of the river Scheldt, a stone’s throw from the city centre of Antwerp, is not merely a colossal apartment block; it is an experience. The building can be seen as a co-house avant la lettre, a vertical street where neighbours know each other and communal spaces such as a washing area, car wash and oversized entrance hall overlooking the communal garden boost social interaction,” says the architect.

Honouring the 20-floor tower’s robust character, Studio Okami’s first gesture was to tear down the walls of this five-bedroom duplex and strip away all layers of finish from the ceilings and walls, revealing the building’s beautifully textured concrete bones.

Framed within a cast-stone minimalism, the home of Bram, Doris, and their dog Señor Peña unfolds as an enchanting interplay of meanings, where raw materiality meets sleek metallic surfaces, and every shade of grey falls in love with the sky-blue spiral bridge.

Following a clean-cut modernist path, the new design draws inspiration from the aesthetics of Donald Judd, positioning the utilitarian units of the house as floating, independent artworks meticulously curated among Doris’s art collection.

A sculptural kitchen island paired with a suspended inox wall unit coexists with books, plants, wall lamps, and bespoke furniture in an idiosyncratic universe shaped by measure, taste, and intimacy.

“The kitchen island is designed as a sculpture in the room when out of use, but becomes highly functional in full chef mode,” say the architects.

The wall-to-ceiling concrete shell, punctuated by existing holes and plugs, is balanced by a smooth peach-coloured liquid floor, echoed again in the coating of the watertight bathroom. Defining the luminous living room with home office of the open-plan, single-bedroom loft are the double-height pivoting windows, framing the harbour of Antwerp and the neighbouring forest while facing the home’s vertical spine: a steel sky-blue spiral staircase and adjacent passerelle that give access to the upper floor, where the home’s more private functions are hosted.

“Remodelling the apartment at 45 m above ground level meant that all custom-made furniture had to fit inside the internal elevator, whose dimensions defined the maximum size of each piece. Additionally, this forced us to weld and paint the staircase and passerelle on site, a job well executed by Stielatelier,” explains Bram, addressing the main construction challenge of the duplex’s renovation.

More secluded and personal, the 14th floor shelters the bedroom and study, organised around a technical block housing the bathroom, storage, washer/dryer and dressing. The warm orange hue of the night-light bathroom blends with the city, forming a beacon of presence and use.

Concrete-grounded in the earth yet floating up in the sky, Bram, Doris, and Señor Peña’s Brutalist duplex becomes a domestic act of creative expression, binding architecture’s past with the discipline’s present while setting the ground for a livable future.

Drawings

Facts & Credits
Project title  Brutalist duplex apartement in de Riverside Tower
Typology  Residential, Interiors, Renovation
Location  Antwerp, Belgium
Built Area  230 sqm
Status  Completed, 2021
Architecture  Studio Okami 
Lead Architect  Bram Van Cauter
Artworks  ( s o o n )
Staircase Construction  Stielatelier
Photography  Olmo Peeters, Matthijs van der Burgt