HOUSE FOR A GALLERIST
HOUSE LEG
An artist’s retreat in Grez Doiceau that fosters a deep experience of nature
Year → 2016
Status → Design Development
Team → de baes architects & frontofficetokyo
Our clients for this project were art gallerists who wanted to add a retreat where they, their friends, and artists could find a refuge from the city and reconnect with nature. The site for the project is in a dense forest southeast of Brussels, nestled at the foot of a valley. We set out to design a retreat built with—rather than on top of—the land, offering the restorative and inspiring experience of nature the clients envisioned.
We designed two options for the client:
Option 1: Nature as Catalyst for Creation
This option invites visitors to reconnect with and be inspired by nature. The design adds a guest pavilion across the pond from the main house. An elongated pool leads through the valley and around the side of the pond, linking the two structures. To access the pavilion, visitors swim from the main house, plunging themselves into the water in a confrontation of nature. Once they reach the pavilion, they find a space of solitude that eschewed the conveniences of everyday life—including running water electricity—that encourages simple living in communion with the land.
Option 2: Living Embedded in Landscape
This option replaces the existing house with one designed to sit in—rather than on top of—the land. The new house, partly on pillars, partly sunken in the hillside, merges into the surrounding topography. The roof, a horizontal plane in the sloping landscape covered in strips of wild vegetation, acts as a podium, blending house and landscape. The smaller volumes on the roof—a workplace and a studio—offer small places of retreat surrounded by the forest panorama.
