Pachtwoning House

Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin

Pachtwoning House

Jo taillieu architecten

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Christiaens, Lina

PHOTOGRAPH
Filip Dujardin

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Dilbeek, Belgium

CATEGORY
Houses

A single-story house with a gable roof and small outbuildings. An accompanying entrance pavilion allowed for private access through the monastery wall. On the site of the former Wivina monastery in Groot-Bijgaarden, on the border of the walled property, stood a dilapidated tenant house. 

Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin
Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin

The whole is part of the protected heritage site of the monastery, which had to remain intact during the renovation.

At the same time, there was a need to create a distance from the walkers in the public monastery garden.

Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin
Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin

The design departs from a simple gesture: the four walls of the house were preserved and restored, while one of the ends of the gable roof has been moved halfway outside the volume.

In that way, a patio was created within the existing walls of the house, which created the desired distance to the public domain, and a new room was created on the other side of the house amidst the surrounding greenery.

Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin
Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin
Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin

Whereas the starting point of the renovation is a seemingly simple gesture, it simultaneously results in a nuanced weiterbauen on the existing tenant house.

The new plan of the house is marked by the old wall that became an inner wall and in that way becomes a defining element for the arrangement of rooms on the ground floor, with on the one side a kitchen, and a living room on the other.

Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin
Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin

The new roof structure is made of wooden clt-panels, which also divide the spaces on the first floor. The finishing of the roof consists of conventional roof tiles, which, however, are placed diagonally as a result of the shift.

On the other hand, the entrance pavilion and the outbuildings have been adapted with yellow bricks, which are only recognizable as new materials up close.

Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin
Pachtwoning House
© Filip Dujardin

The gesture with which the house was given a new life thus remains virtually invisible to passers-by: the gable roof remains a gable roof, on top of the old walls.


Pachtwoning House
Floor Plan
Pachtwoning House
Floor Plan
Pachtwoning House
Floor Plan
Pachtwoning House
Section