Squeezed onto an angular plot among a street and a small irrigation channel, this property near the Belgian village of Knokke comprises a timber-clad ground floor with a glass box resting on best (+ slideshow).
House Graafjansdijk was designed by Bruges office Govaert & Vanhoutte, whose previous projects contain a minimal concrete and glass cemetery pavilion and a factory with walls of concrete, metal mesh and glass.
It gives a residence for the owner of a nearby estate agents.
The residence takes its title from a dike constructed in the ninth century to safeguard 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 internet site, which is bordered on its opposite edge by a narrow ditch.
Govaert & Vanhoutte was asked to generate a modern day 4-bedroom loved ones property on this narrow plot, producing the most of views in the direction of the farmland on both side whilst delivering 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 form an impervious surface, while the elevation searching onto the fields is mostly glazed.
“A first determination we produced was to integrate all evening functions on ground degree, closed towards the street and open in the direction of the corn field,” architect Michael Lammens informed Dezeen.
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“This creates a very intimate character. The only way to do this was to nearly completely occupy the terrain on the initial degree.”
Weatherbeaten wooden cladding wraps around a garage positioned at the narrower finish of the plot. On the side bounded by the water, the bedrooms lengthen close to the edges of a modest 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 over the level of the dike to provide views across the fields on either side.
“In this way a powerful horizontal plinth carries a glass lookout,” Lammens added. “This horizontal character was crucial, integrating the residence in its residential setting.”
The timber cladding extends 1 metre past the ceiling height of the ground floor to kind a railing close to 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 field.
The materials palette utilized for the building’s exterior is continued internally, with the same weathered timber boards utilized to walls on each amounts.
Black tadelakt plaster flooring provides a tactile surface that is complemented by the raw metal used for the kitchen countertop and dining table.
White lime paint applied to the remaining walls and ceilings gives these surfaces a softer matt finish.
Photography is by Tim Van de Velde.
Site strategy – click for more substantial image 
Basement floor prepare – click for bigger picture 
Ground floor plan – click for more substantial image 
1st floor program – click for bigger picture 
Cross part – click for more substantial image 
Lengthy part – click for bigger picture 
