Beel & Achtergael Architects designed this villa in Flanders, Belgium.

The client wanted a house where he could relax in calm and privacy among his family and friends and enjoy his extensive art collection.

The site for the building is on a mixed vernacular residential / light industrial street close to the clients companies offices.

While the general surroundings at the rear of the plot are agricultural and offer a quiet perspective, there is considerable traffic at the front.

In this project we therefore tried to create "a little world on its own" by arranging all dwelling quarters on the ground floor in a U-shape around an open air courtyard.

On the inside of this shape a continuous glass wall opens the generous circulation and living rooms to this "heart", the social core of the house.

Designed for easy living, it is here that guests are invited to enjoy the light, space and art.

To the outside the walls of the building are mostly closed however: smooth surfaces of white plasterwork, only sparsely punctuated with large windows where needed for the more intimate rooms that cradle the transparent inner space.

The first floor is reserved for business and recreational seclusion: discrete volumes house an office and a media room and give shape to the silhouette of the house, their distinct windows catching north light and looking across the surrounding fields.

Via Contemporist