Bowed roof creates extra living space

The genesis of the project reads like a novel. When the Consept Building Group purchased the land with the aim of erecting an apartment block, the vendor, a man with roots in Tuscany, asked for the building to be named after his native region. Home architect Luc Kwanten immediately allowed himself to be inspired by the dome of the ‘duomo’ in Florence for the shape and colour of the roofs. He followed the same line for the rest of the colour palette: sunny yellow for the façade brick, brown accents with the brick edges around the porches and the dormer contemporary windows, and Pvc window frames finished on the outside with a polyacrylate foil in silver-grey imitation wood-grain.

Residence Toscana is comprised of two volumes, which are set at right angles to each other, and accommodates a shop, six ‘ordinary’ and seven duplex apartments. And there is a roof garden where the volumes meet. The ‘home gable’ end was also finished with red clay roofing tiles, so that the sun introduces a warm and welcoming glow. Under the building there is a garage level with ample parking and home storage facilities.

Roofer Ronny Gielen was responsible for the laying. “It was the first time that I had laid such a large bowed roof, but everything went very smoothly. The home structure was made with prefabricated rafters. Because the contemporary tiles do not stop all the rain water due to the steep gradient, the under-roof also had to be rendered impervious to rainwater, dust and snow as well. On Koramic’s advice, we worked with an under-roof foil that allows the passage of water vapour and is tear-proof. The rest was mainly a matter of attention to detail: "the architectural skylights had to be nice and tight, I worked the accessories into the tile battens because they were slightly curved, and of course I fixed every tile one by one.”

Project: Apartment building with 13 apartments and 1 shop, Tessenderlo (Belgium)
Client: Consept Building Group, Paal-Beringen Architect: 2A.be, Paal-Beringen
Roofing manufacturers contractor: Carpentry & Roof Construction Gielen, Beverlo
Clay roof tile: Koramic Pottelberg Tempest Tile 44, natural red