The story of Renaat Braem's own house and studio began with a whole series of sketches which he made in 1955.
Construction started in March 1957 and in January 1958, the architect and his wife, graphic artist Els Severin,
moved into their new residence. The house, beyond doubt one of the finest examples of post-war residential architecture
in Belgium, is a simple and sternly designed semi-detached building volume, with a refined subdivision of the façades.
The spatial composition is made up of a combination of cuboid blocks that are either open or closed.
The fairly high and narrow space to the north, has an introvert character owing to the dark wooden parquet
and the rough plastering in English red. The living room and dining area, however, consists of a wide, flat
space four steps up, to the south, in pale shades of blue and yellow, a light-coloured linoleum floor,
exposing the interior to the sun, the clouds and the trees outside.
The adjacent kitchen is functional and set in primary colours. On the top floor, the fair-wooded bedroom and the cubic,
black granite bathroom, give access to a patio designed as a roof garden. Light beams entering through the stairwell,
lighten up the entire house. The double-high L-shaped study, at 1,25 m underneath the garden level, is glazed on
three sides and is divided by a split-level with an office and a library. From their drawing tables,
the architect and his assistants could see blackbirds hopping around on the lawn.