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01-128
FARR HOUSE
/ SINT-GENESIUS-RODE
(FLEMISH BRABANT PROVINCE)
/
1984
/ 1985–1986
Philippe Samyn’s passion for wooden frames is evident
here, much as it would be expressed, a few years later,
in the offices of the Boulanger real estate company in
Waterloo
(01-200)
and in the forestry centre in Marche-
en-Famenne in 1992
(01-279)
. Part of the inspiration for
the long, narrow structure came from traditional barns
(which Louis Herman De Koninck had also used some
time previously, in an attempt to systematise – even
industrialise – rural architectural forms). Philippe Samyn
has thus adapted a relatively simple morphological
model to a residential programme. The structure is set
in a wooded landscape, which is visible via a line of
fenestrations (that are not treated in the modernist way
with horizontal bands). At either end, the discreet brac-
ing of the framework of the ground floor bears witness
to an engineer’s concern for a constructive equilibrium.
The dialectic of symmetry and asymmetry is in evi-
dence here, similarly to the school complex at Nivelles
(01-103)
. The project was partially built by the client.
May 2008
A traditional barn in the Gers, France