Wall House by And'rol

Precast concrete lintels with oozing courses of grout create a distinct facade on this house near Brussels by Belgian studio And'rol (+ slideshow).

Named Wall House, the three-story family home is located near to a former stronghold, so And'rol designed a grey-brick facade with concrete lintels to reference the crumbling stone walls of the old fortress.

"The relief of the bulging grout reinforces its rough character," said the architects.

A low wall surrounding the plot is constructed from the same materials, while the three remaining elevations of the house are clad with dark grey fibre-cement panels.

Square windows are scattered across all four elevations. Some are recessed, while others sit flush with the walls and some are screened behind horizontal concrete bars.

The house is located on the top of a steep hill and contains a split-level interior that negotiates a change in level across the site.

An asymmetric roof creates the necessary head height for the uppermost floor, which features a deep-set window facing out to the south.

The kitchen worktop is constructed from a stack of concrete slabs, referencing the building's exterior. Other interior details include a wooden staircase with integrated seating, low-hanging pendant lights and a selection of brightly coloured furniture.

Other houses we've featured from Belgium include a residence broken down into cubic volumes and a glass house with a sunken swimming pool. See more Belgian architecture »

Photography is by Georg Schmidthals.

Here's a project description from the architects:

Wall House

The plot's particularities are on the one hand its perturbing position close to a steep rock slope, and on the other hand its small depth and its unusual longitudinal orientation parallel to the street.

Starting point for the young Belgian architects were traces of a nearby former stronghold. The main design element consists of an enclosing wall with a recessed rising part, to which the modest and sober main house nestles and adapts.

A second shallow volume that houses a large number of storage spaces is also located behind the wall.

The architects chose precast concrete lintels as a reinterpretation of the old fortress walls of rubble stone. The relief of the bulging grout reinforces its rough character.

Inside, a split-level organisation responds to the plot's sloping ground, intensifies the open space concept and gives the compact building a generous and spacious character.

The used materials are deliberately kept simple and easy; the bare prestressed concrete slabs, the polished concrete flooring and the concrete bar refer to the enclosing wall.