5.7.2011
House in the outskirts of Brussels
Esta casa para un artista incluye la planta baja de una pequeña casa existente. Allí se ubica el hall de entrada, una sala de estar y la cocina; otra sala de estar y la escalera se organizan en la ampliación del edificio. La segunda planta incluye el dormitorio principal con su baño, así como cinco habitaciones para los niños con sus altillos e instalaciones sanitarias. La casa presenta fachadas vegetales curvas que le otorgan privacidad frente a los vecinos al norte, al este y al sur. Por el contrario, la fachada oeste es totalmente vidriada, como si se tratara de un gran ventanal dividido. Cortinas translúcidas de poliéster blanco suspendidas de la parte superior de la estructura garantizan la sombra de esta fachada en los meses de verano.
This house for an artist includes the street level of an existing small house. It now houses the entry hall, a family room and a kitchen; the living-room and the stairway are in the extension to the building.
The second floor includes the master bedroom with its bathroom, as well as five children’s rooms and sanitary installations. They are equipped with a mezzanine protected by textile netting that will lead to the glassed-wall facade.
The house presents curved and vegetalised facades that are very private and closed to the neighbours to the north, the east and the south. In contrast, the west facade is entirely glass-walled as if it were one huge partitioned window.
It is planned that Immense translucid white polyester curtains in widths of 1.6 m suspended from the top of the structure to the ground floor would run along this great « window » to ensure shade in the summer months.
Initially conceived as a wall of ivy with a patinated copper roof, the vegetalised facade is finally composed of a selection of exotic plants chosen by the botanical artist Patrick Blanc, and extends to cover the roof.
We had to design the structure, the insulation, and the water-tightness of the envelope and resolve the building physics issues in order to receive the necessary support systems, irrigation and fertilisation systems for the plants that are set into a felt support stapled to rigid PVC panels.