Architettura

Huis aan 't laar / 51N4E

On the outskirts of a village, in a beautiful dense tree-scape, stands a dark solitary volume clad in burnt larch. This ambiguous structure is actually part of a residential campus dedicated to mentally disabled people. Two separate living spheres are combined into a sustainable, compact volume. They host two groups of young, semi-autonomous adults. The hidden duality of the building is only revealed at the sole point of contact between the two groups: a double staircase. The irregularity of the plan is as much a response to preserving the landscape as to the building’s internal demands: the design decision to include a corner and two windows in every room. The resulting layout ensures that each room has differentiated areas for sleeping and living, and a double light condition. The design aims at multiplying opportunities for inhabitants to appropriate space and relate more profoundly to their immediate and larger context. Belonging to the campus as much as to the village, this calm, sober structure challenges institutional clichés associated with health care architecture.

Model

Site location

Solitary volume in the forest

Detail facade

Evening view

Ground floor plan

Typical floor plan

Section through double staircase

View of the double staircase

Multiple relations inside-outside

Multiple relations inside-outside


51N4E is a Brussels-based international practice that concerns itself with matters of architectural design, concept development and strategic spatial transformations. It is led by 3 partners: Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn and Peter Swinnen, and at present it is 20 people strong.
The office was founded in 1998 and gained renown through key projects such as Lamot (2005), TID Tower Tirana (2004), C-Mine (2006), Skanderbeg Square (2008). In 2010 Peter Swinnen was appointed Flemish Government Architect.

51N4E has been rewarded with different international prizes for the architectural projects, while it has recently engaged in the development of strategic visions for large-scale urban regions such as Bordeaux (50.000 dwellings), Brussels (Bruxelles Metropôle 2040) and Istanbul (Making City).

51N4E aspires to contribute, through means of design, to social and urban transformation.

Architects: 51N4E
Location: Zoersel, Belgium
51 N4 E Partners : Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn, Peter Swinnen
51 N4 E Team: Karel Verstraeten, Jan Opdekamp, Aline Neirynck, Paul Steinbrück
Area: 1,320 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Filip Dujardin , Courtesy of 51N4E
Structural Engineering: BAS/ Dirk Jaspaert, All-Ingineering
Technical Engineering: Henk Pijpaert
Client: Vzw Monnikenheide
Budget: € 1,180,000
Site Surface: 4,800 sqm