Squeezed onto an angular plot in between a street and a small 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 developed by Bruges workplace Govaert & Vanhoutte, whose past tasks incorporate a minimal concrete and glass cemetery pavilion and a factory with walls of concrete, metal mesh and glass.
It provides a property for the owner of a local estate agents.
The property requires its name from a dike constructed in the ninth century to safeguard regions of France and Belgium from North Sea storm surges.
The only remaining section of the Graaf Jansdijk is now a road that extends east from Knokke along one side of the internet site, which is bordered on its opposite edge by a narrow ditch.
Govaert & Vanhoutte was asked to produce a present day four-bedroom family members house on this narrow plot, producing the most of views in direction of the farmland on both side while providing privacy from the adjacent street.
A single-storey volume containing the bedrooms occupies the entirety of the site at street level.
Its frontage is clad in fence-like timber boards that type an impervious surface, although the elevation hunting onto the fields is largely glazed.
“A very first choice we created was to integrate all evening functions on ground level, closed in direction of the street and open towards the corn area,” architect Michael Lammens told Dezeen.
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“This creates a very intimate character. The only way to do this was to practically fully occupy the terrain on the initial degree.”
Weatherbeaten wooden cladding wraps all around a garage positioned at the narrower finish of the plot. On the side bounded by the water, the bedrooms lengthen around the edges of a tiny inner garden.
Stairs lead from an entrance set back slightly from the street to a transparent volume containing the kitchen and living space. This smaller sized upper storey is raised above the level of the dike to supply views across the fields on both side.
“In this way a powerful horizontal plinth carries a glass lookout,” Lammens added. “This horizontal character was critical, integrating the residence in its residential atmosphere.”
The timber cladding extends one particular metre beyond the ceiling height of the ground floor to type a railing all around a massive decked roof terrace.
A full-height sliding glass door connects the dining region with this terrace, which is lined on its opposite edge by a glass balustrade that guarantees an uninterrupted view across the corn discipline.
The materials palette utilised for the building’s exterior is continued internally, with the very same weathered timber boards utilized to walls on each amounts.
Black tadelakt plaster flooring offers a tactile surface that is complemented by the raw metal used 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 plan – click for more substantial picture 
Basement floor program – click for more substantial image 
Ground floor prepare – click for larger picture 
Initial floor program – click for larger picture 
Cross part – click for bigger image 
Lengthy section – click for bigger image 
