I instantly dug this retreat house.  Tell me you wouldn’t be living large vacationing here.  Take a look.

What other’s are saying:

Good Millwork

Weekend RETREAT! Amazing use of wood architecture. Sexy lake diggs! Vertical facades are opaque to outside, yet allow view of lake and garden from within. I can picture myself lazing about on the dock and even really enjoying some time with the family while gathered about that awesome fire pit.

Multi-planar use of small plank wood beams at floor and ceiling makes it look like a builder’s nightmare (but we could handle it). Anyone here speak Flemish? I sure don’t but I would like to visit this place if they’re willing to accept a sawdust producing, mono-linguistic American.

Wim Goes is an award-winning architect, born in 1969 in Ghent. Wim Goes Architectuurwas established in 1997 and the firm’s work includes private, public and retail projects, ranging from the stunning Yohji Yamamoto flagship store in a neoclassic building in Antwerp, to museum, office and design environments. This year, he was chosen as one of the 40 under 40 European Architects by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago  Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.

The Cool Hunter

The bucolic setting of this lovely private refuge is located in the tiny hamlet of Bachte-Maria-Leerne in the Flemish district of Belgium, about 10 kilometers from the country’s third-largest city of Gent. Gent-based architecture studio Wim Goes Architectuur designed the beautiful extension to this residence. The wooden addition sits above a new wine cellar and extends partly over the pond.

The natural, graying wood, the green vegetation and the blue sky and pond create a harmonious balance, accented by the slim vertical lines of the largest surfaces. Goes’s signature style combines intentional, unpretentious simplicity with functional clarity, and results in stark beauty with Japanese-Finnish undertones.

In this residential structure, Goes created an elegant facade that encompasses both visual and structural grace. The facade is created from slim strips of wood (only 6 x 8 centimeters in cross-section) selected for the straightness of the growth rings in each piece of wood. And although the wood will still warp slightly in the rain and sun, this does not pose a structural problem because the facade does not need to bear wind load — the wind will blow right through the strips. The only structural load the wood strips must carry is the vertical load of the roof.

Wim Goes is an award-winning architect, born in 1969 in Ghent. He established Wim Goes Architectuur in 1997. The firm’s work includes private, public and retail projects, ranging from the stunning Yohji Yamamoto flagship store in a neoclassic building in Antwerp, to museum, office and design environments. This year, he was chosen as one of the 40 under 40 European Architects by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago  Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design. – Tuija Seipell.

See additional photo’s from The Cool Hunter that accompany this text.