However, while the exterior of the house is painted and its internal joinery is untreated, the inverse approach has been used in the cottage. The appearance of the original house references American ranches. «The cottage was designed to have the same general spirit as the house without being identical in style,» architect Paul Vermeulen told Dezeen. Vertical surfaces on either side of the building have been painted red to contrast with the wooden boards while creating a connection with the tone of the main house. Photography is by Dennis De Smet. This separation is reinforced by the lack of any internal connecting spaces. At the rear of the structure, the corrugated steel roof folds out over the top of a cantilevered section that provides a protected roost for the family’s chickens. Belgian studio De Smet Vermeulen Architecten designed this angular timber-clad cottage to create a music room in the garden of a house it designed over ten years ago near the village of Sint-Martens-Latem (+ slideshow). One of the entrances leads to stairs that ascend to a hobby room with a large picture window set into the sloping wall. Related story: Tom Lloyd and Cassion Castle build garden studio embracing «timber and craftsmanship»
The new building houses a toolshed, a chicken coop, a workshop and a music room where one of the clients’ children can rehearse with her band. «Concrete was an obvious choice on the outside of the cellar,» Vermeulen explained, «and we thought it was nice to show it on the inside as well. The new structure shares visual elements with the main house, including its angular form and a similar material palette, but certain details have been altered to give each building a distinct character. This is a sort of interior that the main house, having no cellar, does not have.»
A wood-burning stove is situated in one corner of the cellar, while plywood panels covering parts of the walls enhance the heat and sound insulating properties of the space. According to the architects, its intersecting sloping surfaces were a reaction against the abundance of faux-vernacular architecture in this part of Belgium’s Flanders region. «Like buildings on a farmyard, each of them is built according to prevailing practical considerations but in keeping with a general idea of accordance.»
A brick plinth supports a wooden-framed construction that has been cloaked in timber boards to evoke the cladding of the house.
