Established in 2006, Belgian Atelier Vens Vanbelle is a Ghent based studio spawned from Dries Ven’s and Maarten Vanbelle’s fun-enthused love for redefining the everyday. Breathing new life into existing architectures and also establishing harmonies between the practicalities and the potential quirks of daily space, the duo’s impressive use of internal journeys, unusual material pairings and their refined form/void compositions are pretty much spot-on. They are clearly adding a bit of their own awesome-sauce to daily Flemish life.

Relying on the physical modeling process, their renovations, extensions and new builds intelligently exhibit a refreshing type of quotidian engagement that brings about subtle hints of human character. Gauging light quality, environmental context and intriguing fields of view, their design process has produced an ace line up of built works. Whether it’s a tree house or an alien extension, Vens Vanbelle have come up trumps and are definitely worth some pretty serious design-envy browsing.

Katasan. Ghent, Belgium (2014) // Talk about tree house interiors. This renovation of an artist’s residence is entirely hinged off a central tree element. The journey up speaks to the inner tree-climbing kid in all of us.

Piet and Sarah. Ghent, Belgium (2014) // Described by the architects as a “cocktail of science fiction and nostalgia” this alien add-on to an existing farmhouse epitomises the eclectic and fun approach Vens Vanbelle brings to the drawing board. As well as providing an extra bedroom and bathroom, Vens Vanbelle have given this growing family a copper space ship with cockpit and all.

Nico and Hilde. Balegem, Belgium (2013) // An example where corridors and thresholds are used to create intriguing vistas and to play with the relationship between exterior and interior. Oh and gotta’ love that dog!

Gewad. Ghent, Belgium (2012) // At a first glance you might think this beauty was a realised Escher drawing. Fair enough. Yet you’d probably be selling the project a little short. Consisting of four individual houses, rubrics-cubed together within the historic shell of an old burnt out costume shop, Gewad exemplifies Vens Vanbelle’s sophisticated yet joyful approach to designing residential space. Have a squiz at the varied yet controlled use of materiality, and how it expresses programmatic thresholds. Also, I can’t but love the internal courtyards reflection on the balcony. Brilliant!

Tijl and Indra. Ghent, Belgium (2011) // Undergoing renovation for almost four and half years, this ‘house within a house’ uses rough timber planks as a semi-external facade to carve out a new kitchen, bedroom and bathroom within the existing space. Again, light is a central theme, and as its passage is controlled delicately through a complex array of thresholds, it reveals every modest yet beautiful detail.

Schuurbain. Zedelgem, Belgium (2010) // Revealing its inner structure and expressing its elemental composition, this barn plays a game between its vernacular heritage and material composition. Supported by concrete foundation walls, the barn’s roof construction is externally expressed through a layer of see-through polycarbonate sheeting. Full of light, transparent and structurally revealing, this project exhibits a whole other, more distinguished face of barnyard architecture.

[Images © Tim Van de Velde Photography.]