LV House

Brussels

Belgium

First of all there were trees. Slender, monumental. The intention was to capture their dignity, their strength and their aspiration towards the sky. How could architecture claim to match up to this ambition? Far more than a theme or a refrain in a composition, the verticality is interposed in the lines of this villa. The height of the spaces is doubled, the picture windows invite nature into the house, rigorously framed, as in the photograph New Pictures from Paradise by Thomas Struth. Suddenly, the entire construction comes to life. A tilt, a whirling: the curve skims against the line; the circle sweeps away the corners. The hall ventures a cylindrical form, like a ballet in which, just as the Tony Cragg sculpture is sublimated by the backdrop formed by the window and against which it stands out, the curve enlaces the straight lines.

© Serge Anton