House WR by Niko Wauters
Location: Keerbergen, Flemish Brabant, Belgium
Year: 2011
Area: 1,929 sqft
Photo courtesy: Liesbeth Goetschalckx, Ynje Degraeve, Niko Wauters
Description:
Architect Niko Wauters designed this minimalistic low-energy family home. He is one of the leading architects at Schellen Architecten.
This spacious home was designed on a small plot (8 acres), and is designed around contrasts. Open to the sun & the garden, but closed to the street & the north.
The black volume on the ground-floor contains the living areas, all connected but visual separated. The night part is located on the upper floor in the semi-floating white volume.
Through pivotating glass doors & skylights, daylight illuminates the whole home. At night, the moon is a subtle night light in the upper corridor.
Because of its well thought design, this home uses little energy. Air-tight & well insulated, this home loses almost no energy. The small amount of energy necessary for heating the home during winter, is produced by a geothermal heathpump and solar panels.
Most of the interior lights are LED’s. All produced heat is reused (even heat from waste-water).
This project shows that low energy design & minimalistic architecture can go hand in hand.
Thank you for reading this article!
