Zoersel House / Arjaan De Feyter

This house was designed in 1969 by architect Herman Andriessen. A year after completion he passed away. In 2005 interior architect Arjaan De Feyter and his wife bought the house which was in total decay and ready for demolition.

Architects: Arjaan De Feyter
Location: Zoersel, Belgium
Photographs: Stijn Bollaert, Jan Verlinde

In notion to Bauhaus this steel house was originally designed as a prototype in 1969 that could be erected elsewhere on the still largely empty residential estate. The original plans show a villa with steel skeleton and a half-open ground floor that reminds us of the Villa Savoye, with its central core and industrial materials.

In 2005 interior architect Arjaan De Feyter and his wife bought the house which was in total decay and ready for demolition.

They retained the original plan of the first floor, which is where they were to live. They extended the ground floor so as to install a workspace, whose visual impact they mitigated by means of large glass walls with profiles that were barely visible. The house was first stripped down to the steel skeleton and the vaulting. The steel was seriously corroded in many places and had to be restored. The aluminum sandwich panels and the original wooden windows, now double-glazed, were then fitted back into the renovated skeleton. A lot of attention was paid to designing new and better joinery details. The biggest challenge in the renovation was the problem of cold bridges that is characteristic of steel skeletons that are also exposed to the outside. The solution was provided by a quick-drying two-component resin, which was sprayed onto all the beams and pillars in contact with the outside air. This four centimeter coating of resin does not have a spectacular U-value, but it does adhere exceptionally well to steel and is totally damp-proof, so that there is no risk at all of condensation moisture.

On the inside of the house, the steel skeleton is now completely enveloped in an amorphous layer of polymer and then encased in painted MDF. The villa now complies with current standards for domestic comfort, while the memory of the original house remains alive.

Arjaan De Feyter designed every single interior detail as well.