In Belgium’s historic city of Ghent, a young family finds timeless balance in a home that bridges heritage and contemporary design.In Ghent’s historic centre, most 19th-century townhouses have long been divided into apartments, their family histories quietly erased. This one, however—a stately home built in 1838—escaped that fate. Following a sensitive renovation by Belgium-based architecture firm Nóbrega Borghmans, it has been reimagined for a young family ready to write its next chapter.The architects approached the project not as a restoration of the past, but as a continuation of it—balancing the weight of heritage with the rhythm of contemporary life. Working closely with local heritage authorities, the façade was returned to its original form, right down to a custom-mixed paint colour drawn from archival records. Inside, the structure was stripped back to its essence, revealing high ceilings, the original staircase, and the generous proportions that define the era. “The house was in poor condition, with dropped ceilings and missing ornamentation,” co-founder of Nóbrega Borghmans Charlotte Borghman explains. “We had to peel it back to its bones before reintroducing detail through reinterpretation rather than imitation.”
