Windows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstall
Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minute
ThatPainter is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More
About 20 minutes outside Antwerp, Axel Vervoordt and architect Tatsuro Miki transformed a ruined 19th-century gardener’s cottage into a two-part country house for Vervoordt’s nephew and his wife. The original, renovated cottage remains formal, colorful, and layered; a new barnlike wing is deliberately spare, tactile, and closely tied to the lawn, stream, and woodland. A long corridor joins the two, turning the walk between old and new into a quiet architectural ritual.
The house stands at the edge of the park of the Castle of ’s-Gravenwezel, where Vervoordt and his wife, May, have lived since 1984. Family proximity is therefore not a background detail: the owners are Vervoordt’s nephew and niece-in-law, and the project places another generation of the family in the same landscape. Architectural Digest published Michael James Gardner’s account, photographed by Frederik Vercruysse, on June 25, 2025.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Two houses, one carefully paced sequence
The starting point was a small 19th-century former gardener’s cottage that had become a ruin requiring major renovation. Rather than erase it, Vervoordt and Miki retained its footprint and character, then attached a new wing modeled on the proportions and utility of local barns. The result is not a historical reconstruction and not a single, uniform modern object. It is a conversation between an inherited building and a contemporary addition.
| Aspect | Retained cottage | New barnlike wing |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | 19th-century former gardener’s cottage, extensively renovated | New construction inspired by local barns |
| Atmosphere | Formal, colorful, and layered | Meditative, restrained, and minimal |
| Relationship to landscape | Reads as an established house within the grounds | Opens more directly toward lawn, stream, and woodland |
| Design emphasis | Accumulated history, antiques, art, and Flemish details | Material texture, silence, and visual connection with nature |
That contrast gives the home its rhythm. Rooms in the older section can carry visual information and historical references; the new wing provides areas in which the eye can settle. The architecture does not force both halves to speak in the same voice.
#1 Best Overall
The corridor is the project’s emotional hinge
A long, spare corridor connects the cottage to the barnlike addition. Its windows are set below eye level, so the views are directed toward the ground rather than toward conventional horizon lines. Vervoordt explains the effect plainly: “The windows offer a view to the ground.” He adds, “Like in a monastery, the long walkway is a preparation for the mind.”
Miki describes the passage as a roji, the pathway that leads toward a Japanese teahouse. In his interpretation, the corridor is “about openness and preparing the mind to enter into another world.” Those meanings belong to this design team’s reading of the device; they are not a universal rule that every connecting hallway should follow.
The low windows also change how the surrounding property is perceived. Instead of turning the corridor into a gallery of distant views, they make grass, paving, and the changing surface of the ground part of the experience. The transition is intentionally slower than a normal circulation route. One leaves the layered cottage, passes through a nearly empty interval, and arrives in the quieter barn wing with a different visual and mental pace.
Low windows make ordinary viewpoints feel deliberate
A bedroom view from bed height
The primary bedroom repeats the strategy in a more intimate form. Its window is set low enough to frame the landscape from bed height. The choice is practical and atmospheric at once: the view belongs to a person lying down, not to a standing observer looking through a standard opening.
Framing the ground instead of staging a panorama
Across the project, the designers favor partial, grounded views over a continuous display of scenery. The stream, lawn, and woodland are encountered in fragments and at different levels. This restraint supports the “sense of oneness with the surrounding nature” that Vervoordt says the clients wanted, without turning the house into a glass pavilion.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsMaterials are chosen for physical character
Material decisions carry much of the new wing’s identity. The walls use hemp, which the designers associate with breathability, insulation, and acoustic qualities. Natural clay gives many surfaces their sandy color. In the kitchen, lime plaster and natural casein paint create a soft, matte envelope, while pale green and blue introduce color without breaking the calm palette.
The designers also used heated terra-cotta flooring in the kitchen. Its warmth is tactile as well as visual, and the material connects the new work to the Flemish terra-cotta tiles and other earthen elements found in the older part of the house.
The feature reports that the designers said they used no synthetic materials in the building process. That is a claim attributed to the project team, not an independently audited certification or a published life-cycle assessment. The article supplies no measured energy, insulation, acoustic, or wellbeing results, so the materials should be understood as documented design choices rather than quantified performance guarantees.
Reclaimed timber gives the barn its age
Although the wing is new, its structure is not visually age-neutral. Beams more than 100 years old, salvaged from Dutch barns, were incorporated into the construction. On a covered walkway, fallen tree trunks gathered in nearby woodland serve as columns; elsewhere, larch was selected for exterior columns. These elements make the addition feel connected to regional building traditions and to the site’s own vegetation without pretending that the wing is an original barn.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Miki summarizes the approach this way: “We care about materials. We are always seeking their physical truth. Everything is made with purpose, and yet, we don’t start with preplanned ideas. We add elements and then we search for the solution to bring them together…we like to make things that last.” The quotation explains why the surfaces are not treated as a decorative theme. Their irregularities, weight, and aging potential are part of the architecture’s intended legibility.
Rank #3
East–West dialogue without a single style label
Miki says, “In a lot of our work, we look for a dialogue between East and West. In this project, we wanted to combine the formality of this old home with a new barnlike structure that incorporated wabi elements.” Here, “wabi” describes an appreciation for simplicity, imperfection, and material presence rather than a checklist of Japanese motifs.
The dialogue appears in spatial sequencing as much as in objects. The older cottage accommodates accumulated layers; the corridor offers a moment of emptiness; the barn wing pares the visual field back to structure, clay, timber, and landscape. Korean-style shelving made from salvaged pine planks can sit comfortably alongside antique French and Dutch pieces because the organizing principle is not period matching. It is the physical truth and usefulness of each element.
Antiques, art, and designed furniture build the interior’s layers
Vervoordt’s interiors are often associated with restraint, but this house is not furnished as a blank minimalist shell. The feature records a mix of antiques, artworks, and pieces designed by Vervoordt. Among them are an ottoman from his home collection and a bench made from an old wood plank set on a stone base.
The library includes Vervoordt-designed pieces identified as a linen Club chair, “Brian” Sofa, and “Opium” coffee table. Antique French and Dutch objects add historical density, while original Flemish terra-cotta tiles reinforce the connection between furnishing and architecture. Korean-style shelving built from salvaged pine planks introduces a lighter, more vernacular note.
Works by Jef Verheyen, Sadaharu Horio, and Ryuji Tanaka appear in the house. Their presence is specific to the photographed project; the feature does not establish that any of these objects or furnishings are currently available for purchase. The collection demonstrates how the rooms accommodate art without turning every wall into a display surface.
Rank #4
What Vervoordt means by “no rules”
“There are no rules to what we do,” Vervoordt says. “Everything is chosen by feeling.” He continues: “In this house, we wanted it to feel comfortable, serene, and silent, with a sense of oneness with the surrounding nature. This is the essence of what we tried to achieve.”
In context, “no rules” does not mean that decisions were arbitrary. The house follows a clear sequence: preserve the cottage, add a barnlike volume, slow the movement between them, lower selected windows, and let natural materials carry color and texture. Feeling is the stated criterion, but it is supported by precise architectural moves.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
The same distinction helps explain the phrase “zen feeling” used in descriptions of the project. The calm comes from controlled sightlines, a limited but not colorless palette, tactile surfaces, and a deliberate relationship to the site. It is not produced by applying a generic spa aesthetic or by removing every historical object.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Family context changes the meaning of the landscape
Because the house belongs to Vervoordt’s relatives and sits close to the home he shares with May, the project is also an exercise in family continuity. The grounds at the edge of the castle park are not an abstract green backdrop. They are a shared setting in which generations can remain near one another while occupying distinct houses.
That closeness may help explain the balance between intimacy and openness. The cottage retains the signs of lived history, while the barn wing gives the younger household a contemporary place to inhabit. The architecture acknowledges the family connection without making the new home a replica of Vervoordt’s own.
Best Value
How to read the house as a painter or designer
Start with the interval, not the objects
The corridor demonstrates that a transition can be an active composition. Its low windows, spare proportions, and changing ground views create a pause between two visual languages. In a painting studio or interior project, a similar interval might be a threshold, a blank wall, or a narrow passage that allows the eye to reset.
Recommended Free Tools
Let material differences carry the narrative
Hemp, clay, lime plaster, casein paint, terra-cotta, salvaged pine, old beams, and larch are not interchangeable finishes. Their textures and histories distinguish one zone from another while keeping the palette coherent. The lesson is not to copy the materials, but to assign each one a perceptible role.
Use views selectively
The low bedroom window and ground-level corridor openings show how a limited view can be more particular than a wall of glass. A carefully framed patch of lawn or woodland can establish a stronger relationship to place than an undifferentiated panorama.
Allow old and new to remain legible
The project gains energy because the cottage and barn do not pretend to be the same age. Retaining difference can be more convincing than manufacturing seamless continuity. The connecting architecture should explain the relationship, not conceal it.
A house designed for comfort, silence, and duration
Vervoordt calls the result “a very happy house.” He adds, “It radiates positivity and [the clients] were so creative and nice to work with. They understood the ecological and technical things that we wanted to achieve and appreciated everything.” Those comments describe the collaboration as much as the finished rooms.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
The completed home’s quietness is therefore not emptiness for its own sake. It is the outcome of a renovated historic shell, a new barnlike structure, a measured transition, grounded windows, and materials selected for their tangible qualities. The house remains particular to its Belgian setting and to this family, yet its design logic is legible: preserve what carries memory, add what the present requires, and make the passage between them meaningful.
Further reading
For a fuller discussion of the designers’ ideas about wabi-sabi in architecture and interiors, Vervoordt and Miki coauthored Wabi Inspirations, published by Flammarion in 2011. The book is a contextual reference rather than a catalogue of this specific house, and current availability, pricing, and editions are not established here.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
