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Architects: no.ma architecten
- Area: 234 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Stijn Knapen
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Manufacturers: Reynaers Aluminium, Diresco, Pretty Plastic, Sprimoglass, Winckelmans
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Lead Architects: Wim Van den berge, Cedric Rosier
Text description provided by the architects. A young couple was looking for an architect who could transform their recently purchased house into a flexible, challenging, playful and inspiring family home with a unique look and character. The clients had bought the house primarily for its location and the view of Vlierbeek Abbey. They had little affection for the house itself. The house lacked any contact between the rooms, and there was no relationship with the garden and surroundings either. no.ma architecten designed a new volume with a high-performance insulation shell on top of the basement floor. This way they were able to focus on a thorough spatiality with split-levels, internal diagonal sightlines and precisely planned window openings. The boundaries faded between inside and outside, the different spaces and their flexible use over time.
Opaque and glass surfaces alternate. The closed surfaces block the view from neighbors and conceal less attractive views. The large glass surfaces draw rich light into the house and frame views of the sky, the farmland behind it and the abbey. Two large canopies cover the bike port and terrace on the one hand and create green zones at the level of the sleeping area and the bathroom on the other hand. They also provide passive sun protection. The furniture was also designed with flexibility in mind.
The new volume is sheathed with a plastic roof and facade slats according to the upcycle principle. This makes this house the first project in Belgium with plastic diamond slats. This choice was determined not only by the sustainable quality, but also because of the color nuance and shading. Inside, white walls are combined with steel girders, wooden beams in sight, red-pigmented concrete on the ground floor and terrace, a bright red vinyl on the remaining floors, oak veneer, green-painted furniture elements and pink cement tiles.
The bike port to the left of the house forms a covered entrance from the street side. You immediately enter the first living space. From this space, a staircase climbs to the upper floors, while a lazy staircase leads to the kitchen, about a meter and a half below, at the level of the backyard. The red pigmented concrete floor flows through several wall-to-wall steps into a basement-level seating area. A small desk area was built under the lazy staircase in the sunken living room. The kitchen cabinets merge into a storage closet, which includes the door to the tech room and guest toilet, both in the existing basement.
On the second floor are two children's bedrooms, a bathroom and a second toilet. At the back, a void was created above the kitchen into which a trap net was stretched. This creates a diagonal line of sight with the floor below, the sunlight penetrates deeper into the ground floor and adds to the spaciousness. The rear facade was fitted with large sliding windows on each floor, allowing inside and outside to flow into each other.
