Alex' Guesthouse by Atelier Vens Vanbelle

The client works in the film business and regularly receives (international) guests. He wanted more privacy in his home, so he decided to build a guesthouse. The only criterion was that the guests had to remember their stay forever.

An almost cinematic experience was added to the home: the guests enter through the front door of the house and are guided through the living room towards the garden shed. From here you enter the bicycle parking, and there is a staircase to a dark underground corridor (basement).

At the end of the desorientating corridor there is a spiral staircase that is in contact with the outside space. The weather elements are thus drawn into the underground space to add a little drama to the experience.
In addition to the technical room, the basement also houses a cinema and a bar.

The guest house is reached via the spiral staircase. If you go even higher, you end up in a watchtower with a view of the Schelde (river) valley.

From the guesthouse, which feels like a wooden grotto/cabin, you suddenly have a view of the beautiful garden of the client and the neighboring castle.

The guesthouse was designed as one large piece of furniture and was constructed from different layers of LVL wood. The construction was done in a studio and was rebuilt on site. The facade was finished in profiled corten steel.