KID
  • PROGRAM: Nursery School . SIZE: 775 M2 . LOCATION: Boutchay, LB . CLIENT: Private . STATUS: Built . TIME: 2011 - 2018
  • Squeezed between dense housing and an orange grove, the building is a long retaining wall hosting three floors for children and administration.
    The upper floor stays low enough avoiding light obstruction to the private terraces of the neighboring apartments and its roof offers them a local stony landscape.
    Between grey and green, built and open, concrete and natural, upper and lower level, the project is a transition from one state to another. With this in-between situation, connecting the natural with the built environment, the double orientation of the upper floor enhances the tension between those two contexts.
    Inside, the project is articulated by spatial contractions. The concrete retaining wall swells to host all mono functional programs like stairs, storage and toilets keeping the open spaces as free as possible. All floors are structured in three spaces transiting through narrow darker spaces into wide and bright open spaces. In plan, the dislocation of those three open spaces offers an open view towards the sea.
    Also, long and low windows respond to a child scale and orient the perspective towards the main garden on the lowest level.
    With a similar outline, each floor have their own direct relation to an outside garden, giving a different identity to each floor with a different luminosity.
    Outside, all centennial orange trees are preserved and serve a pedagogical purpose for the kindergarten.
  • Crédits
    In association with OONNONNO . Photo: Ieva Saudergaité, Nancy Siam
  • Publications

    DIVISARE

  • 2008
  • 2024
  • List
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  • Projects
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  • 2008 - 2024 : List of Projects
  • LOCO, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • TOUL, BE
  • DIEU, BE
  • MN, UK
  • PAUXP, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • PLACE AUX ENFANTS, CH
  • Frédéric Karam . wood x mug
  • BLAES, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • CHUQ, FR
  • Frédéric Karam
  • KNUST, BE
  • Joffrey About, Frédéric Karam
  • THE CONTROL AND THE UNEXPECTED
  • Joffrey About, Frédéric Karam
  • TRIANGLE HOUSE, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • DUCHESSE, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • 449,5 Km, NL
  • Nicole Froehlich, Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos
  • ZAV, BE
  • Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos, Harold Vermeiren
  • KOTO, BE
  • Nicole Froehlich, Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos
  • Al Dabal compound, SA
  • Frédéric Karam, RAUM404
  • Lx3, LB
  • Julien Ecoffey, Léonard Gurtner, Frédéric Karam
  • Huis Voor Een Visser, BE
  • Frédéric Karam, Olivier Roegiest
  • Lisière, CH
  • Marnie Amato, Nathanaël Chollet, Frédéric Karam
  • Wall Villa, LB
  • Frédéric Karam, Mio Tsuneyama
  • NOTAN OFFICE is a Brussels based architecture practice founded in 2014 by Frédéric Karam.
    Aware of the specificity of each project, the studio often collaborates with others and works on projects in Switzerland, Lebanon, England and Belgium.

    The work of NOTAN OFFICE is socially and programmatically committed. With a rational approach, the studio boldly manipulate the established, resulting in a unique architecture.
    Whatever the scale, the approach is contextual and seeks to enhance the essence of a place, the people and their concerns in line with today’s society.

    With sustainability in mind, architecture needs to be generous and let the users make it their own.
    NOTANs projects offers sensorial experiences; from spaces to material, the projects are textural.

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    JOBS
    We are constantly looking for talented collaborators and interns
    We only accept digital applications in PDF.
    Send them at notan@notan-office.com
    We’ll try to contact you as soon as possible.

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    ADDRESS
    Av. de la Couronne 382
    1050 Bruxelles
    notan@notan-office.com
    +32 (0)488 868 115

     

     

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    FOUNDER: Frédéric Karam
    COLLABORATORS: Joffrey About, Charles Dujardin.
    PAST COLLABORATORS: Arthur Wery, Pauline Malaquin, Victor Selle, Sibel Yardimci, Argjire Gashi, Esther Perrier, Isis Desmaison, Tommaso Asso, Zyad Belhaj, Sara Lapinska.