Philippe Samyn and Partners, Marie-Françoise Plissart · House for Alain Hubert

Picture: Marie-Françoise PLISSART

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The Avenue Bel Horizon, typical of a number of residential districts located in the surroundings of Brussels, is bordered by houses, some isolated, some in small groups, arranged in narrow and deep plots. The one that interests us is no exception to the rule: 20 m wide along the road (to the North) and 73 m deep, with a building area limited to 11 m in width and 15 m in depth, 6 m away from the road.
The construction is fully in wood from the Black Forest, Germany. The internal structure is in Scots pine, with the frames in Larch and the panelling in Douglas.
The outline of the house is a perfect rectangle of 3/4 proportions, but results from a complex geometrical elaboration, based on two overlapping frames. A first frame, built on a square module of 90 cm, follows the building limits and guides, in the façade, the installation of the section of wooden columns of 80 mm on the side. A second frame, strictly oriented according to the four compass points, forms an angle of 14° with the first (i.e. a right-angled triangle of 1/4 proportions) and defines the blueprint of the partitioning walls. In addition, the whole is doubly symmetrical according to the median axes of the rectangle.
A strict modulation also governs the vertical development of the construction. The floor height of 270 cm is divided up into 32 sub-modules of 8.4375 cm, which punctuate the sections, elevations and boards of the façade. The steps of the stairs have a height of two sub-modules, i.e. 16.875 cm.
The internal distribution is organised around two double height spaces, of trapezoidal and symmetrical outline one compared to the other: the entrance hall to the North and the winter garden to the South. Each contains a staircase that leads to four bedrooms, with their bathrooms, and to the secondary buffer areas.