Literally translated text written by Amélie Rombauts
A dilapidated Austrian chalet was replaced by a small brick bungalow. At least, that's what passersby suspect when they walk past Maarten and Jesse's house. But DMOA fooled everyone with their design. "From the outside, you have no idea what kind of space unfolds behind the garden walls."
VICE VERSA
Matthias Mattelaer and Benjamin Denef have been forming DMOA since 2009. The duo and their team are not afraid of innovation or experimentation. The same goes for Maarten and Jesse's house. Not only its kite shape, which can only be fully grasped from above, but also its location on the plot is surprising to say the least. "The plot itself was already special. A rounded wedge on the flank of a hill," explains Matthias the floor plan. "By raising the widest side of the volume on the tip of the plot and vice versa, we were able to create an island in the green. With the necessary visual distance from the neighbors." (...) "If you want to take outdoor space into account - which was the starting point for Maarten and Jesse - rectangular or square houses look cumbersome. When you play with angles, you actually make the whole thing lighter." The glass front door barely distinguishes itself from the elongated windows that break through the brick wall. Guests usually enter through the terrace, which follows the entire back of the house and covers the sunken sleeping area. A pointed concrete canopy seems to shoot out of the house. "To not obstruct the view, we avoided using supporting columns as much as possible. Instead, we worked with beams that had a dual function. On one hand, they enable the overhang, and on the other hand, they define the different angles in the large living space."
FLOWER POWER
Often, new constructions retain a high showroom quality. Not in the case of Maarten and Jesse. A certain nostalgia for the '70s runs as a common thread throughout their interior. The field bricks used to build the seamless walls were reclaimed, as were a couple of typical pendant lamps the couple purchased at vintage markets. The kitchen, with its pastel colors and hand-painted cement tiles, seems straight out of a flower power decor magazine. "A small studio in Deinze, P & Careau-Line, restored Louis Herman De Koninck's iconic Cubex kitchens for years before venturing into retro kitchen designs themselves," says Maarten. "Jesse discovered them through word of mouth," Matthias adds. "Although the kitchen may be brand new, the cabinets and drawers click just like they used to. That gives an instant good feeling, doesn't it?" The same atmosphere appears in the bathrooms on the ground floor, where zellige tiles and custom-made furniture in seventies shades emerge. A bungalow that isn't really a bungalow ends up having a touch of it after all. But the overall picture, that's definitely cool.
