The Four Room House, home to Belgian architects Pieter Peelings and Silvia Mertens of Sculp(IT), is stacked on four different floors. That's right, one room per tiny floor...
The compact footprint of this vertical house makes for an interesting exercise in small living: rooms are spare and the purity of the design is always intact. The basic sequence for each floor is a long, slender space with one specific function (sleep, eat, work, etc) and a glass front permitting light and views.
The first floor is a workspace, with a big glass door that opens the full front of the room to the sidewalk. Walk up one floor on the spiral stair and you're in the kitchen/dining room. One more floor up is the living room. A projection screen lowers in the small space for viewing videos. The uppermost floor is the bedroom and toilet, with an awesome view from the bed out of the full glass front wall. Where's the bathtub, you ask? On the roof, of course! As much as we're loving this compact house, we're having trouble getting on board with the shower and toilet in the bedroom. Otherwise, we're on board. Photos: Verne / OWI
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I am constantly amazed at how comfortable some people are living their lives so fully exposed.
That said, the hot tub on the roof is pure bliss! On that, we agree on.
My aunt & uncle in BC have a house that's a bit like this. it's built into the mountain, and has five floors, one for eat distinct purpose. It's beautiful and I love how it sets your life up for you.
It's like a habitrail.
Wow.
When I move to Europe this is definitely the type of home I hope to have. I just adore it! The bedroom and rooftop bath really cater to a voyeuristic lifestyle. I would LOVE love LoVe it if the US were as comfortable with nudity and living openly as other nations.
My apt is on the 12th floor and I never close my blinds. Visitors are always afraid someone will see us inside or they wonder how I can walk around naked after a bath. lol. I love my view and I love nudity (and the chance of someone seeing me...haha) so I refrain from covering the windows. We have to be naughty sometimes, don't we? It's fun...
that is an amazing and brave house :-D
Perfection... serene, open and light even though the space is small. LOVE!
This is gorgeous. There is an element of performance art to the house and to living so openly.
well done, they obviously have nothing to hide
I wonder if you have to wait for it to stop raining before you can take a bath. Or doesn't it matter? Because I am sure it rains a LOT in Belgium.
wow, this makes my introvert/hermit instincts go nuts!
I'm not sure why you're so shocked at the one room per floor concept. It's maybe not common everywhere, but there are certainly plenty of them around. I lived for a while in a trinity house in Philadelphia. The first floor was an open room with a galley kitchen, the second floor was a bedroom and bathroom (not in the same room!) and the third floor was another bedroom with a small deck in the space where the bathroom was on the second floor. My house of course was a rental off craigslist and nowhere near as curated (icky carpeting everywhere, stucco walls) but it was still pretty adorable. Climate control was a big issue (the heat bill was ridiculous!), but then again it was a badly restored 1870's house, these people in belgium have probably ironed out the kinks.
I wouldn't mind being exposed if I looked like those two...hot!
Awesome! I love everything about this house. Though I'm not sure I'm tidy enough to live in it...
That is amazing. Loves it.
As a concept- very thought-provoking. As an actual living space- well, you've lost me there.
Good for them if they want to show themselves off every second of the day. Too bad for the rest of us who wouldn't really enjoy watching them do their business all the time... I'm glad I'm not their neighbor!
And I disagree about Europe having a voyeuristic lifestyle. When you're open about nudity, it takes the voyeurism OUT of it. Being more conditioned to nudity doesn't mean that people in Europe are walking around all hot and bothered all the time- it means that instead of nudity being linked to naughtiness and sex, it is recognized as natural (and nothing to get excited about).
This is lovely, but what a pain! I would really dislike having to run up several flights of steps every time I wanted to use the bathroom. You would pretty much HAVE to be young and fit to live in such a place!
I have no problem with the single room aspect...my issue is with the jail cell toilet right next to the bed. I guess going in the middle of the night gets both easier but way less private.
I guess the neighbors love their view.
Yikes, not my cup of tea that's for sure. I'm sure I've seen this place on AT before, no? Regardless, all the power to them if they are brave enough to live in that fishbowl-like space but I personally would like at least some semblance of privacy especially in such an urban area.
c'est dingue ca.
dank u wel voor uw bezoek!
What's up with the yellow/green/red/blue lighting-- can't be for the benefit of the occupants. The ant-farm effect was too subtle without multicolored lights to attract passerby?
The architect had the choice of using clear or semi-translucent glass for the street level (or, a combination of the two). He chose clear. Do you think he had the best interests of the would-be occupants in mind, or was he looking for guaranteed cheap publicity?
In rereading, I now realize that the occupants ARE the architects. Whelp, I hope this design gets them all the attention they crave and then some.
well, i think it is not about attention for them as persons, but for their work - and what is wrong about that?
as a european i must say that Europeans are not very voyeuristic :-D maybe it is a culture thing, being used to windows without drapes. in Germany it changed in the 60s - before that people closed the windows with drapes. now it is pretty normal to have the windows open all day (and then some, depending on how close the neighbours/the street are, and how relaxed you are with having people see you).
i prefer open windows to drapes until i go to bed - not sure if i would want all glass walls, but i like them.
and - most neighbours have better things to do than watching, normally …
Love it. The only deal breaker is the toilet.
Gorgeous house! I specifically loved the windows too! I'm amazed at how huge a house can look even if it is squeezed in a tiny bit of narrow space. Making it 4 floors with one room each is a sure brilliant way of solving the horizontally-challenged space. :-) Mara for Commercial Interiors in Sydney