Woning Arteconomy

In their design for the Arteconomy villa in Sint-Eloois-Winkel, the architects of 51N4E intervene radically in one of the foundations of the Flemish tradition: the fermette [houses in the style of a farmhouse]. The house is located at the edge of a small wood that has been parcelled out, with a superb view of the surrounding meadow landscape.

Julie and Michel built a fermette here about twenty years ago, but now wanted more room for themselves and the art that had, in the meantime, become inseparably entwined with their lives. They asked 51N4E to write a new chapter in the story of their lives and to update their home, without repudiating what was already there. So the architects had to work with what there was: a late climactic point in the domesticated farmhouse style that has plagued Flanders for years, and to which good taste in architectural Flanders has been opposed for as many years. 51N4E decided to explore the limits of their own practice – and those of the Flemish fermette as a traditional housing ideal.

The architects set out a new perimeter in the form of 3 metre high sheets of 12mm-thick steel, painted white on the inside, and placed 3 metres from the house. This enclosure was opened up in four places to let the surrounding greenery in. This gives the villa the extra elbow room it needs: an intermediate zone where the wood and the living area influence each other indulgently. The house is given a logical extension in the form of a sort of outdoor interior with a dining area, an outdoor bathroom and an entrance, marked by a layer of asphalt, red and white tiles or ground cover, and surrounded by white and green.

This text is based on an article by Stefan Devoldere, published in Architecture Review Flanders N°10. Radical Commonplaces. European Architectures from Flanders.