This house near Brussels by architects Samyn and Partners has a glass wall at the front and a plant-covered wall by French botanical artist Patrick Blanc at the back.
This is a mixed-use construction for a
cinematographer that includes production and workspaces as well as a
residence. The construction includes the street level of an existing
small house. It now houses the entry hall, a large office and a
kitchen; the living-room and the stairway are in the extension to the
building. The professional studios occupy all the cellars as well as
part of the second floor. The remainder of this 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 leads to the glassed-wall facade.
The building 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.
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.
The architects says that they 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.
Immense translucid white polyester curtains in widths of 1.6 m suspended from the top of the structure to the ground floor run along this great « window » to ensure shade in the summer months.
* Images taken from Samyn and Partners website. Photography credit Marie-Françoise Plissart.
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