KAN-GOO-ROO | VIVA Architecture

Design of a sustainable house for two families with a shared common space. The house is constructed around an inner garden patio, that serves as an entrance to the individual units and, at the same time, generates mutual privacy.

In a dead-end street of a typical Flemish suburban neighborhood one last unbuilt corner lot with wide views over the surrounding fields is ready to be built. A young family with one child and a single parent, four in total decide to build a house together, with respect for each other’s privacy. Question to self: how to create a three generation house as a meaningful living environment within this generic sprawl?

Multifunctional patio
The dimensions and orientation of the plot and translation of the brief allow for the creation of a personal context without ending up as a secluded island through a sequential organization. The house can be read as a trinity, one coherent whole consisting out of three different functional zones. The residences are located front side for the single parent and garden side for the family with a shared dining room and patio in between. The patio functions as an outside room within the envelope of the house, it is an extension for the shared dining room and a buffer between the two private zones. It organizes as well a postponed entry from whole to part and turns the house inside out.

The distinct organization of the whole is also translated in the internal logic of the house. The circulation, different rooms and windows and doors are positioned in such a way that different ‘moments’ are created. These internal and external views as well as the entering light connect the different parts of and the surrounding scenery to the house.

The construction of KAN-GOO-ROO is a compact, sustainable timber frame construction. The brickwork is layered with rough coral red bricks, the finishing of the patio is an even aluminum cladding, contrasting the soft inner shell of the patio with the character of the robust outside shell.

The design of this ‘multi-layered house’ offers identity and meaning to the brief. It is at the same time a corner house, a double house, a multigenerational house and a patio house.

( Pictures by Koen Broos)