Vantieghem Talebi assembles CLT coastal house in Belgium in three days

By Marcus Bennett

Vantieghem Talebi assembled the entire cross-laminated timber structure of House of Cards, a coastal residence in Koksijde, Belgium, on site in three days. The four prefabricated volumes arrived as panels, rose over an existing foundation, and left the main living level free of columns.

The constraint came first. An existing foundation, cast in an asymmetrical cruciform geometry, dictated the plan, and each triangular bay became a separate volume. The Ghent-region practice stacked these bays off-center so they read as a house of cards. Planning rules capped the building at the maximum permitted height, and the architects drew the steep rooflines from traditional beach houses along this stretch of the Belgian coast.

How did the cladding stay seamless?

The exterior wears a timber rainscreen of chemically seasoned Douglas fir battens. The battens run without interruption across the steeply pitched roofs, producing one continuous envelope. Prefabrication did the finish work: the battens conceal every fixing, and gutters and drainage sit behind the cladding rather than on it. For practitioners, the detail matters — the roof and wall read as a single surface, with no expressed gutter to break the line.

What does exposed CLT replace?

The design team at Vantieghem Talebi let the structure serve as the interior finish. Four floor panels define the structural bays across the living area ceiling. Exposed timber panels follow the pitched roofs above the bedrooms and the central hall. A floating staircase sits within a wood floor grid that spans the bays, exploiting the column-free interior that the off-center CLT arrangement created.

Each of the four triangular volumes houses one room. The upper bedroom, with its exposed CLT ceiling following the pitch, works like a small chapel.

Which systems and site moves complete the project?

• A Type D mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery
• Rainwater collection and reuse
• Restoration of the surrounding dune landscape
• Low concrete retaining walls giving pedestrian and vehicle access to the subterranean level

The existing foundation, the site conditions, and the planning restrictions shaped both the structure and the architectural form, according to the design team.

Project team

• Architect: Vantieghem Talebi
• Structural engineer: Util Struktuurstudies
• Wood structure and facade: Timberframing
• MEP: ESP-Projects
• Location: Koksijde, Belgium

The project shows what a three-day CLT erection can deliver on a constrained coastal plot — a column-free living level and a sealed envelope — for any practice working over foundations it did not design.