The House : where art, nature and people come together

Just off of a path at the Middelheim Museum lies an enchanting, semi-open pavilion designed by Robbrecht en Daem architecten, known as ‘The House’. Though the structure is made of metal, it feels surprisingly light and airy, and above all, it succeeds in seamlessly bringing together the cornerstones of the Middelheim Museum: nature and art.

In designing ‘The House’, Robbrecht en Daem had to devise a sturdy building that could house the fragile works of art temporarily on display there, without cutting them off from the surrounding park. With this in mind, the architects opted to use a largely transparent structure and work with large, pivoting doors, to respect the communication between the inside of the pavilion and the world outside.

Once the type of steel was selected, large plates, 20 mm thick, were laser cut to give the look of a steel lattice. This creates the airy, transparent effect without sacrificing any of the strength or precision of the design. Though the finished building exudes a certain effortless beauty, a great deal of work went into controlling the internal tension of the material during laser cutting, in order to create the recognisable vegetative structures.