Apartment with an Underground Bedroom

Riham El Moazen

The Apartment with an Underground Bedroom (2024-ongoing) is a transformation project for a couple located in a residential area in Brussels.
The existing condition was characterised by a long and narrow ground-floor apartment in a deteriorated state. Facing the prospect of a growing family and future spatial needs, the clients were concerned about a lack of space and long-term adaptability.
The project proposes a radical reorganisation by integrating the cellar space directly beneath the apartment into the living unit, transforming it into a new master bedroom. To enable this connection, an adjacent cellar belonging to a neighbouring unit was acquired, allowing the introduction of a new vertical circulation in it.
Life in the apartment is structured between day and night. During the day, the couple inhabits the elongated apartment on the ground floor, which is renovated to allow openness and flexibility for everyday life. At night, they descend into the underground bedroom - a space entirely clad in wood, offering a calm and intimate atmosphere. The closet and access to the private bathroom are concealed behind flush wooden doors, reinforcing the spatial clarity of the room. A new light well, created by removing part of the cellar ceiling, brings natural light into the otherwise secluded space.
The project establishes a clear spatial and temporal duality between above and below, between day and night, between daily life and private retreat - redefining domesticity as a sequence of shifting spatial conditions.

Project Gallery

Plan 0_Plan -1_House with an Underground Bedroom_Riham El Moazen.jpg

Visualization Underground Bedroom_House with an Underground Bedroom_Riham El Moazen.jpg

Construction site_Underground bedroom_House with an Underground Bedroom_Riham El Moazen.jpg

Visualization of the underground bedroom_House with an Underground Bedroom_Riham El Moazen.jpg

Construction Site_View from the garden towards the house - showing the 0 level and the underground bedroom, before the installation of the windows_House with an Underground Bedroom_Riham El Moazen.jpg

Construction site_The kitchen space and the stair to the underground bedroom_House with an Underground Bedroom_Riham El Moazen.jpg

Riham El Moazen AT

http://www.rihamelmoazen.com
Georgigasse 31 | 8020 Graz