Studio Okami stripped down an Antwerp interior to pay homage to the Brutalist tower in which it is located. Originally a five-bedroom duplex, the architecture studio converted the space into an open-plan single-bedroom loft for one of its founders, Bram Van Cauter, to live in with his partner Doris Vanistendael and their dog.

The Riverside Tower was designed by Belgian architects Léon Stynen and Paul De Meyer (the duo behind the brutalist icon Sint-Ritakerk) in the early 1970s. The project was envisioned as an ode to Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse, with the architects translating the ethos of modernism to fit the Belgian context. The result was one of the first high-rise towers in Antwerp, where it has continued to draw notable residents, including fashion designers Pieter Mulier and Matthieu Blazy.

Van Cauter first encountered the duplex when looking for a new office space for Studio Okami, which is now on the building’s tenth floor. Immediately taken by the space, the architect and his team sought to restore and update the essential qualities of Stynen and De Meyer’s design. They started by removing the majority of the interior walls and all the layered finishes from the remaining walls and ceilings, revealing the original concrete. To modernize the look while staying true to the building’s inherent character, the concrete was sandblasted to add a textural element to the interior.

To anchor the newly opened floor plan and create an integrated storage solution, Studio Okami designed a bespoke Donald Judd-inspired kitchen island that encloses the appliances in a monolithic, functional sculpture. The upper level is organized around the unit’s second functional core that houses the bathroom along with laundry and storage spaces.

Seeking to balance out the concrete and soften the harsher qualities of the brutalist space, Studio Okami finished the entire floor in a smooth, muted peach. Similarly, a sky-blue open-riser spiral staircase leads to the upper level via a matching catwalk, enhancing the effect. The couple’s art collection is used to the same end with pieces positioned according to the preexisting holes and niches in the concrete walls. Light floods in through double-height pivot windows that look out onto the Scheldt River, giving the largely concrete interior an airy quality.

The apartment is furnished with both pieces that were designed contemporaneously with the 1970s building, such as De Sede’s DS88 modular sofa, and more modern pieces, including Muller Van Severen’s Long Table and Big Game’s Bold Chair. The curated furnishings and art, custom units, and architectural qualities come together in a striking twenty-first-century reinterpretation of the twentieth-century movement.