CLIENT

Philippe De Ceuster en Alex Gabriëls

ARCHITECT

Bart Lens en Thijs Prinsen for Lens°Ass Architects 

 

GARDEN CONTRACTOR

Tuinmakers 

 

FACING BRICK

Hand-Made facing bricks:
linea 3007

 

PROCESSING

brickwork with mortar applied during construction, seamless   

 

Photos: © Bieke Claessens & Philippe Vangelooven

 

Linea 3007 blends in beautifully with wooded surroundings

Villa looks splendid thanks to special visual language

 

The house is situated in a green neighbourhood in Kampenhout, Flemish Brabant.

The villa is surrounded by indigenous valuable trees and behind the plot runs a brook that can flood several times a year: two challenges for the architect.

For that reason, the architect decided to position the house and the path leading to it higher than the road, and the villa was built in-between the trees. 

 

 

The southern side of the house is located at the front of the plot on the right-hand side. The starting point for the design was to create an elongated volume between the trees, positioned at an angle so that the living spaces and the swimming pool would get as much sun as possible.

An overhang was created on that side of the villa in order to shield the living spaces and bedrooms from direct sunlight. The house nestles in-between the trees as it were, takes the wet conditions into consideration and is precisely oriented.  

 

 

The architect designed a house with a unique visual language by laying the facing bricks in a magnified claustra bond with chequerboard pattern. This design language was made possible thanks to the stackability of the facing bricks which enabled a solid construction to be built that would let in sufficient light.

The horizontality of the house is emphasised by the brickwork which has a broad horizontal joint, with the sides being butted up to each other with no vertical joints.

This idea originated as a result of research carried out into the choice of brick and possible processing methods on the one hand and also as a result of a match between the client and the architect on the other. The client had seen similar styles of architecture in Marrakesh while the architect drew inspiration from the famous Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh while on an architecture field trip in India.

 

 

Around the villa, the thickness of the joint was carefully calculated and determined, as a result of which all the horizontal lines flow into each other perfectly. In the process, particular attention was paid to the window apertures and the steps, as can be seen from the photographs.

In order to create the desired uniform and solid visual image, the Hand-Made linea 3007 was also used for the finishing of the steps and the wall capping. This veined brick with natural shading met the preset requirements. 

 

 

Both the shape and the colour of linea 3007 determined the choice of the architect.

The length of the facing brick emphasises the horizontal linear finish of the house and the brown-red shaded colour fits in perfectly with the wooded environment and the oak and black steel exterior joinery. 

 

Comparable case studies

hand-made-linea-3007-facing-brick-is-the-perfect-match-with-the-natural-surroundings

Hand-made Linea 3007 facing brick is the perfect match with the natural surroundings

This project has provided a home for a couple and their guests in the middle of an impressive green environment. The distinguishing features of the house are two large pitched volumes that are in stark contrast with the surrounding level ground but perfectly offset against the tall trees.