In the centre of the village of Opwijk stands a discrete doctor’s house on a triangular square used for parking. Part of the house is angled away from the building line and its recessed entrance completes the corner of the street in style. On entering, the visitor can choose between the private house on the left and the doctor’s waiting and consulting rooms on the right. There is a passageway at the rear of the consulting room that leads up a few steps to an office and then back to the private entrance hall. From here, a staircase leads up past a series of children’s rooms to the main bedroom under the roof.

Architect Marie-José Van Hee spreads the rest of the Van Aelten house out over the elongated plot. The enclosed plot is filled with outdoor spaces along which the various elements of the dwelling arrange themselves. One patio buffers and guides the circulation between the front and back sections of the house. A second outdoor space provides light and air for the kitchen, creates the necessary distance to the next house and enables a direct passageway to run from the village square to the garden. Right at the back, there is a spacious living area lit from above, separated from the kitchen by an impressive TV cabinet and sideboard, with a view of the garden and the opposite end of the plot.

Here in Opwijk, the transition between the village centre and the residential estate is only as long as one elongated plot. About halfway down the plot, the house makes the change from the dignitary’s house in the village to the luxury suburban villa with its extensive lawn. The twists and turns it goes through on the way, and the conditions between which it is stretched are the starting points for a meticulous composition in domesticity, whereby its public appearance merges seamlessly with comfortable living.

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