Squeezed onto an angular plot amongst a street and a little irrigation channel, this residence near the Belgian village of Knokke comprises a timber-clad ground floor with a glass box resting on top (+ slideshow).
House Graafjansdijk was created by Bruges workplace Govaert & Vanhoutte, whose past projects include a minimal concrete and glass cemetery pavilion and a factory with walls of concrete, metal mesh and glass.
It gives a property for the owner of a local estate agents.
The home will take its identify from a dike developed in the ninth century to shield areas of France and Belgium from North Sea storm surges.
The only remaining section of the Graaf Jansdijk is now a street that extends east from Knokke along one side of the website, which is bordered on its opposite edge by a narrow ditch.
Govaert & Vanhoutte was asked to develop a present day 4-bedroom family members home on this narrow plot, producing the most of views in the direction of the farmland on both side while delivering privacy from the adjacent street.
A single-storey volume containing the bedrooms occupies the entirety of the site at street degree.
Its frontage is clad in fence-like timber boards that kind an impervious surface, although the elevation hunting onto the fields is primarily glazed.
“A very first determination we created was to integrate all night functions on ground level, closed in direction of the street and open in the direction of the corn discipline,” architect Michael Lammens informed Dezeen.
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“This produces a really intimate character. The only way to do this was to nearly totally occupy the terrain on the very first degree.”
Weatherbeaten wooden cladding wraps about a garage positioned at the narrower finish of the plot. On the side bounded by the water, the bedrooms lengthen about the edges of a little inner garden.
Stairs lead from an entrance set back slightly from the street to a transparent volume containing the kitchen and living room. This smaller upper storey is raised above the level of the dike to offer you views across the fields on both side.
“In this way a powerful horizontal plinth carries a glass lookout,” Lammens extra. “This horizontal character was essential, integrating the property in its residential setting.”
The timber cladding extends 1 metre beyond the ceiling height of the ground floor to form a railing around a huge decked roof terrace.
A total-height sliding glass door connects the dining location with this terrace, which is lined on its opposite edge by a glass balustrade that ensures an uninterrupted see across the corn area.
The material palette utilised for the building’s exterior is continued internally, with the exact same weathered timber boards applied to walls on each amounts.
Black tadelakt plaster flooring gives a tactile surface that is complemented by the raw metal utilised for the kitchen countertop and dining table.
White lime paint utilized to the remaining walls and ceilings gives these surfaces a softer matt finish.
Photography is by Tim Van de Velde.
Web site prepare – click for greater picture 
Basement floor plan – click for greater picture 
Ground floor plan – click for more substantial image 
First floor prepare – click for more substantial picture 
Cross area – click for bigger image 
Extended section – click for larger image 
