OFFICE  KGDVS

OFFICE 266

VILLA IV – Brussels

This is a house for a family with two young children, one of whom uses a wheelchair. For that child, the house functions as a world in itself, easily accessible, complex yet smooth – a continuous panorama. The round floorplan tries to emphasise this relationship between house and garden, between intimate and extrovert spaces. Its centripetal form collects a set of particular rooms that are easily accessible through the central space, which functions as storage. The rooms themselves are simple yet designed with maximal spatial effect; some are high and wide, others low and narrow, the room with a swimming pool is hot and humid. All of them seek a direct relationship with the outside environment. Within the different pockets of the plan, a set of breakout rooms are organised. On top of the house a second floor is ‘hidden’ in a hat-like roof. The roof is partly accessible and entirely planted, with radial metal structure extending to support the trailing plants. Ultimately all these spaces are conceived as a surplus to a generous home where dimensions defined by the exceptional (the wheelchair) are completely normalised in an attempt to make a perfectly natural space for living.

Year

2018 – 2023

Location

Brussels, BE

Type

Residential, Interiors

Status

Built

Surface

660 m2

Client

Private

Collaborator(s)

Jacques de Liedekerke, hp engineers, UTIL Struktuurstudies

Design team

Kersten Geers, David Van Severen, Jan Lenaerts, Jacopo Lugli, Ivana Cobejova, Henri de Chassey, Justine Rossillion, Thomas Mertens, Chiara Malerba, Benoît Perrier

Award

Competition, 1st prize

Photographs

Bas Princen

Info