CAFÉ DE TANNAY STUDIO
STUDIO VISIT
we lost two fireplaces in one go but
kept using the black hole throughout the winter 2007-08
the 8 meter long supporting oak beam
was reinforced in the garden wall,
while the under half of it appeared to be eaten away
the niche story...
uncovering niche and arches obliged us to pierce the
wall between the barroom and the kitchen
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INTERIOR SPACES
RdC / barroom (today)
Enter the Café de Tannay... you find yourself in a former barroom... Its 19C cement floor tiles have a flowery pattern. The east wall is in natural stone masonry; it has two double arches and a sculpted niche. The arches plunge into the floor. What has been their function, what did they support? Do they continue below the current level? Have they been constructed only to support the wall’s weight? And what about the niche? Was it a safe, or some cold storage? It sits in the left arch. The fireplace in the opposite wall has been reduced to a large black hole — two mantles have disappeared there, a 19C elegant reduction of the original Burgundy stone mantle, which’ supports also appeared to be rotten, so one cold morning we lost two fireplaces.
The room is sparsely furnished. Amidst a jumble of construction tools and materials two elegant black table chairs await cleaner times. Between the wall with the fireplace and the arched wall is the kitchen separation wall. Three openings connect the two rooms. A new wide passage which allows to see the masonry wall continue, half a double arch extending into the kitchen, one simple door opening without a door, and one empty ancient stone portal in the middle, in which the concrete sink expands. The fourth wall is the café’s garden façade, with two windows and the main entrance door.
During the renovation, the main room of the house served as the studio’s heart. It is where the fire was kept burning in that chilly 2007-08 winter. The above description is more or less valid today. This will be the last room to be cleaned and furnished. It connects the garden en via the kitchen the courtyard, so it knows most traffic. Two fireplaces gone, it awaits the installation of a wood stove to return it its central role in the house’s activities. Almost there in September 2008.
CONNECTIONS
kitchen
garden
façade
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