In the eighties architect Jan Van Den Berghe built his own house on a marvellous spot, close to the channel Mechelen-Brussels.Roof-type, symmetrical ground plan, wooden structure, honest materials, the use of cement stone and many-coloured aluminium joinery, were the main characteristics of this building period in Flanders.This post-modern pyramid house was a statement for the seventies/eighties.Architect Van den Berghe requested dmvA to refurbish his own house for his daughter, who owns a well-known company designing hats and bags.The basic idea was to create more transparency and spaciousness in the house.Elegant, light spiral stairs in steel replaced the heavy looking concrete ones.By detailing the stairs without central newel and applying the expressive colour red for both the stairs as for the brilliantly woven safety ropes, it gets the appearance of a piece of art. Circulating in the house by these stairs, which connect all different storeys, is like a ‘promenade architecturale’, sometimes hiding, sometimes revealing.The former workspace of the architect on the ground floor was turned into a studio for company Awardt. Three big cylinder-elements, hidingthe stairs, a toilet and a cloakroom, discretely separate the entrance from the studio.The huge prints of hats and bags on these volumes refer to urban advertising-pillarsand enhance the spatial continuity.The living room and kitchen are situated on the first floor. They are symmetrically implanted around the central glass cylinder. The open and transparent realization of this living area as well as the panoramic window creates a splendid view on the passing ships on the channel.The second floor, a big open space around a closed cylinder, allocated to the parents, accommodate a master bedroom, a bathroom and wellness room.The round openings in the floor, covered with transparent glass, link the first and second floor. The children have their bedrooms on the third floor.The architectural walk ends under the ridge of this pyramid house, in a ‘zen-like’ space, more then 12 meters above ground level. This was the favourite space of the architect, Jan van den Bergh. It functions now as a library, but out of respect to this architect, the wood lining remained untouched.
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