As soon as we observe its scattering of colours and textures, it is difficult to imagine the exterior as described by Jean-Philippe Demeyer. “It reminds one of a boat made of stone and not of brick like most of the houses in Antwerp. The owners are two passionate boaters, a couple with a keen aesthetic sense.” It only took a few minutes of talking over the phone with the Belgian architect for us to absorb his zeal and enthusiasm, expressed through every word he utters and every project he commits himself to. In this house, designed in an Art Deco building dating from the 1930s, he acknowledges respecting “the genius loci and the glamour of the era” while once again, adding his characteristic passion for art and theatricality that accompanies the large, structured rooms. “For me, living a house is knowing that I will find everything as it should be: the space clean, the chair in the right spot and the table empty. Now, that’s a structured home.”
As soon as we enter the main hall, heightened by the black marble flooring and two sculptural sconces, we let ourselves be led along by the core of colour and patterns that courses through its interior.