LO Architectuur: Slow, deeply intimate architecture and interior design

Shortly after completing her studies as an interior designer, Laura Sainderichin realised she wanted to be responsible not just for the interior, but also the architectural design of a project.

“I didn’t have the freedom to design everything I wanted to in a project,” she explains. “I wanted to be able to come up with total concepts in which interior and exterior were in harmony with each other.”

So, Sainderichin decided to pursue an additional degree in architecture at one of Belgium’s most renowned academies just two months after graduating as an interior designer.

It was a decision that would come to define her later approach as a creative. LO Architectuur, the Belgium-based, internationally operating boutique firm she founded in 2018, takes a deeply personal, 360-degree approach to every single project.

Before getting started on a project, Sainderichin usually has extensive sit-downs with clients to understand their needs as well as how to design a project’s spaces around those needs. “I ask really personal questions because this can make all the difference. What is special to you?” she explains. “If you’re a contractor, you have a different lifestyle to that of a lawyer.”

It’s an approach that has resonated with her clients, which have ranged from private individuals to business law firms and retail spaces. Increasingly, she has also started to work internationally, with clients in Italy, France and Spain.

Since its launch in 2018, LO Architectuur has grown from a solo venture to a fully-fledged firm with four people on staff, and it has built a name for itself with a style centred on serene, pure and minimalist spaces. “I love to work with tactile, raw and natural materials and combine these with contemporary shapes and spaces,” she says. “Clients often tell me that my style reminds them a little bit of Scandinavian design.”

Sainderichin’s next big goal is to increasingly integrate locally made materials such as bricks, clay and natural stones. “If as an architect I can nudge my clients to have fewer of these chemical products in their houses and opt for locally made, more environment-friendly materials, then I absolutely want to do that,” she explains. “We are doing high-end design, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work with sustainable materials.” 

Web: www.lo-ar.be
Instagram: @loarchitectuur