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House and Office

Bonheiden, 2005

A house as design brief is always a specific case, except for social otherwise institutional housing projects. Combined with a home office, it becomes almost a post pandemic standard typology in a specific context.

In this case the site and the vegetation organised the basics of the volumes. The house stands free in an half excavated space, the piano nobile is only slightly higher than the garden.

In the interior we chose a strong blending between an architect office and a 4 bedroom house.

The construction minimizes footprint on the ground, is largely circular ( envelope for materials and building components, core for usage flexibility) and has a double skin approach to allow for an economical heating and cooling seasonal use.

Materials were carefully chosen for natural and renewable sources and all wood elements were left untreated, paints and other finishes were based on natural materials only.

The construction combines double skin on 2 levels with single skin on the other levels, internal capacity for the core with skin insulation for the outer double skin shell. A refined natural ventilation system based on the Venturi effect allows for natural ventilation using the intermediate spaces of the double skin for air temperature preparation as seasons direct.

All served rooms always have two entrances, except for the master bedroom and the serving spaces. The exterior double skin forms an ellipse surrounded by 36 wood columns, 2 levels high, 12 by 22m.

The half interior, half exterior skin embraces 4 rectangular levels of 14m by 5m.

The routing in this building runs through spaces, as there is no main corridor or hallway in the building.

  • Flow Transfer International, M&E design
  • Jan Meijer, structural engineering
  • DAE, architectural design and landscaping

Enough talk, let’s build something together.