Ghent-based architect Glenn Sestig recalls the moment when architect Ivan Van Mossevelde first visited his home in Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium. “He had tears in his eyes,” Sestig says, entrusted with restoring the concrete pavilion—one of Van Mossevelde’s earliest projects—alongside his partner Bernard Tournemenne, artist and creative director of Glenn Sestig Architects.

Sestig first came across the brutalist villa by accident as a young architect while walking through the forest. Asking the owner to explore the house from the outside, to which they declined, he took a few photographs of the nameplate and street, and promised himself he would write a letter if it were ever to be sold. “I kept those pictures for years, but eventually I threw them away,” Sestig says, before a local journalist called him to let him know the home was quietly for sale. “I couldn’t believe it—20 years later someone was calling me about the house I had fallen in love with.”

Sestig’s renovations took place over two years, but the architect was steadfast on not altering any of the concrete openings or the visual architecture. “Inside, we stripped everything—plasterwork, flooring, ceilings, plumbing, electricity—and rebuilt with today’s technical standards while always following the original design,” he says.