Encountering the 150-year-old Flemish farmhouse of landscape architect Kevin Mampay, one appreciates anew the elemental, sustaining joy of haven.
Simple and robust, this humble residence sits amid a subtly tailored landscape. Driven by a passion for simplicity, Mampay cleared out an overgrown and formless wood to fashion an idyllic space comprising a broad lawn embellished with artfully situated trees, bushes and other plantings. A meandering drive leads across the property to the house, which is set 500 feet from the road.
Despite its age, the simple lines of the house give it a contemporary profile. Working with interior designer Steven Gielen, Mampay gutted the structure to create rooms that strike a crisp, very of-the-moment character, one warmed by the exposed wood beams of the original ceiling. Orienting rooms to the immediate environment and the vistas beyond was central to the program. While retaining the original window placement, Mampay enlarged some of the openings to better appreciate the landscape. He notes, “Every view through the windows looks like a painting.”
In addition to creating a kind of transparency – a seamless quality between indoors and outdoors – the windows allow natural light to permeate the home, shaping and sculpting the neutrally hued walls and floors. As it bounces through the space, it adds depth and definition to these monochrome rooms. Slashes of light and swaths of shadow engender a shifting sense of volume. Unadorned walls assume a fresh visual interest. Sunshine pours across the floors, like newly laid pathways.
In such clearly minimal interiors, every object – an amphora-like vessel on the floor, a vase of flowers – assumes a space-defining presence. Even the highly arched spigot in the kitchen sink seems to occupy its spot significantly. There is a certain precision to these spaces, a soberly functional aspect. But above all, an enveloping sense of calm, of refuge and yes, of shelter.
Photography by Hendrik Biegs.
For more like this farmhouse, be sure to check out this homestead constructed in the image of its natural surroundings.
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