This contemporary brick home by Belgian architecture studio Decancq Vercruysse Architects is designed to recede into the forest, as though it’s been there all along.
In Sint-Martens-Latem’s leafy enclave just outside Ghent, Belgium, Decancq Vercruysse Architects first looked to an architectural icon for how the new family home could converse with the dense forest at its doorstep. North American architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in Pennsylvania became the design springboard, particularly its stepped form and relationship with the waterfall.
Rather than levelling the terrain, the architecture studio decided to use the site’s significant natural slope as a defining design element. “Like Fallingwater, the architecture responds to the existing topography and becomes part of its natural setting,” Decancq Vercruysse Architects co-founder Emiel Vercruysse says, adding, “We’ve integrated the house both into and above the landscape.” The basement level is embedded within the hillside, while the main living level is elevated above it, luring natural light deeper into the home.
Next, the studio looked to traditional Japanese temples with their deep overhangs and cantilevered rooflines to introduce a layered horizontality to the architecture. The home appears almost weightless as it stretches out into the landscape, with the Afzelia canopies and panels also giving the home’s facade “rhythm and movement,” Vercruysse says.
The kitchen has both an intimate breakfast nook and a generous dining space that extends to the outdoor table and fireplace.
In the living room: a custom-made sofa by Collett & Victor; armchairs by Heerenhuis; coffee table by Stéphane Ducatteau; artwork by Philippe Vandenberg.
The clients say their favourite part of the home is the filtered light that moves through the forest and into the interiors, shifting from morning to evening.
As a way of ensuring the home wouldn’t feel “too pristine within an established forest”, Decancq Vercruysse Architects sourced 200-year-old bricks from an old water reserve, laid with recessed mortar that casts a shadow gap. “The reclaimed brick’s irregular texture and weathered appearance give the building a sense of history,” the architect says, in a colour that feels as if it’s been lifted off the forest floor.
The exterior’s earthen tones and textures have been carried into the concise interior palette: Afromosia timber joinery, Petersen Tegl terracotta tiles for the floors and fireplace, teak parquet flooring and Carrara marble, each working to amplify the green outlooks and instil calm.
Bookended by natural vistas, Decancq Vercruysse Architects has balanced the feeling of expanding out to the landscaped garden and pool in one direction, and creating a feeling of comforting enclosure among the forest foliage in the other. “This creates different relationships with the surroundings,” Vercruysse says, as the open living space is offset by a sunken office and reading room. Upstairs, the bedrooms and bathrooms gaze out to the treetops, amplifying the sense of privacy and connection to place.
Landscape architect Piet Blanckaert designed the low-maintenance garden of native, evergreen plants that laps at the home’s edges, just as the timber decking and bricks laid by the pool continue the architecture into the land. “The intention was to treat the architecture and landscape as one continuous composition, allowing the garden to reinforce the home’s connection with the existing forest,” Vercruysse says.
This Sint-Martens-Latem home was designed not to announce itself too loudly. Vercruysse credits the brickwork for that balance—a material that lets the house disappear into its site while still giving it a distinct architectural identity.
The reticent interior palette comprises Petersen Tegl terracotta tiles, dark natural clay flooring and skirting, Carrara marble, Teak parquet flooring and Afromosia timber joinery.
The main bathroom looks out to the tree canopy, heightening the sense of seclusion and drawing the forest inside.
The exterior features reclaimed brickwork and Afzelia timber canopies and panels. Despite being a new structure, it does not feel overly pristine or disconnected from the landscape,” Vercruysse says, attributing the effect to the brickwork.
The family enjoys spending long summer days by the pool, bordered by landscape architect Piet Blanckaert’s low-maintenance garden of native evergreens.
“The western side has a more open character, while the denser woodland on the other side feels enclosed and private. So from inside, you can experience both the intimacy of the forest and the openness of the wider landscape.”
– Emiel Vercruysse
Like its architectural inspiration, Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright, this home responds to the site’s natural slope, with a basement level in the hillside and the living level above.
