A glass review tasks from the roof of this concrete residence close to Brussels, but it presents an austere windowless facade to the street (+ slideshow).
Koen Pauwels and Wim Van Der Vurst of Antwerp-primarily based ISM Architecten developed the residence for a young couple with two youngsters, who had purchased an oddly shaped plot in a residential spot named Grimbergen.
From the street, TDH House seems as a monolithic concrete volume with an angular type that follows the outline of the plot. A single corner is removed to produce a sheltered parking spot and entrance.
The client is a contractor who desired to carry out considerably of the development perform himself, so concrete was specified as the main creating material during the early stages of the undertaking.
The plain in-situ concrete surfaces form a protective shell around the interior spaces, except in which a glass box emerges from the sloping roof to supply views out from the upper floor.
“Initially conceived as a playroom for the little ones, the glass box is now predominantly utilised as an workplace or guest space,” architect Koen Pauwels informed Dezeen. “It types a wonderful counterpoint to the closed concrete box.”
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“Due to its height and the orientation we had been able to open it up totally with glass with out the chance of overheating.”
Storage, staircases and a bathroom are accommodated along the building’s reliable edge, although openings in the other elevations are very carefully positioned to make the most of the offered light and views.
Most of the house’s windows are integrated into the rear elevation, where a massive aperture that extends practically the total width of the ground floor features doors that open onto a garden terrace.
On the 1st floor, glazed doors set into large windows connect two bedrooms with a big shared balcony.
A master bedroom at the front of the residence also opens onto a segment of the balcony that extends along the property’s slanted edge.
According to the architects, the ground-floor program is representative of the client’s request for a mixture of open and more private spaces that serve diverse functions.
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The separation of the principal residing region from a devoted television-viewing room is in maintaining with an emerging trend for houses that reject entirely open-strategy layouts in favour of more secluded spaces.
“As they have a whole lot of folks coming more than, they wanted an open program with only a number of sliding doors,” Pauwel explained. “The Tv spot is a separated space as they didn’t want a television in the living area.”
Normal components are used throughout the interior to create a warm complement to the raw concrete surfaces that attribute both outdoors and inside.
“As the concrete was a provided [in the project’s short], our major challenge was to complement its greyness in the selection of the interior finishings,” Pauwel added.
Wood is utilized as flooring, window surrounds and for fitted cabinetry, including the kitchen units and a freestanding unit topped with perform surfaces and sinks.
Other concrete residences on Dezeen incorporate a residence in Tokyo with a equivalent cutaway corner for parking cars and a residence in Marseille with an angular window projecting from its board-marked facade.
Photography is by Luis Díaz Díaz.
Floor strategies – click for bigger image 
