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A Stûv project for the 25 Columns holiday home, in collaboration with architectural firm Office GKDVS and artist Bela Silva.
The Stûv 22 wood-burning insert is the beating heart of this holiday home, with its views of Lake Siljan in Plintsberg, in the Swedish countryside of Dalarna. The fireplace was chosen by Lise Coirier and Gian Giuseppe Simeone, owners of the Spazio Nobile gallery in Brussels, and adorned with ceramic tiles sculpted and glazed by Bela Silva, a Portuguese artist represented by the pair for many years. Dubbed “Caresse d’avenir” (Future’s embrace), this sculpture, the result of a collaboration between the project’s partners Stûv and Poujoulat, conjures up images of flowing water and the relationship between the house and nature, and with the lake down below.
© Loulou d'Aki, courtesy of Spazio Nobile
Art historians, gallery owners and passionate curators, as well as being editors of TLmag, Lise Coirier, who is half French and half Belgian, and her husband, Gian Giuseppe Simeone, who has Italian and Swedish roots, spent many intoxicating summers in the region of Plintsberg before one fine day, as they gazed out at a panorama that had always enchanted them, they decided to build a holiday home there, to be an extension of the spaces they inhabit and in which they showcase and manage their artists in Belgium. In the same spirit as their eclectic Art nouveau villa on the outskirts of the Sonian Forest, itself a natural extension of their gallery in the Ixelles neighbourhood of Brussels, this contemporary home, with its bold, avant-garde architecture, blends in seamlessly with its savage, romantic backdrop, evocative of the world of Swedish artists such as Carl Larsson, Anders Zorn and Nobel prize-winning poet, Karlfeldt. A real melting pot of local traditions, particularly when it comes to arts and crafts, the Dalarna region flies the flag for a simple, comforting way of life. Known for their flair for staging and their talent for cleverly bringing together seemingly opposing influences, the couple dreamed of a home warmed by a fireplace positioned right in the centre of the architectural composition, and so in the centre of life. In Sweden, bringing in the wood - birch logs artfully arranged under the houses, like little works of art - is part of a ritual in itself. A ritual that has always charmed the architects, as well as the artist, Bela Silva, a surprise guest to this multi-faceted project.
© Loulou d'Aki, courtesy of Spazio Nobile
From the moment the plot was purchased, the owners of The 25 Columns house knew that they wanted to entrust the task of designing their home to David Van Severen, an old friend of Lise Coirier and Gian Giuseppe Simeone. The Belgian firm Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen does not usually design private houses, but the carte blanche that they were given for this holiday home immediately grabbed the architects’ attention. The concept is simple: two horizontal CLT slabs supported by a series of 25 columns, which give the house its name. In order to highlight the simplicity of the shape and the design, the materials used were kept as simple as possible; from the wooden slabs and curved columns (an impressive technical feat in themselves) to the aluminium roof and large bay windows, boasting uninterrupted views of the landscape. The columns support 4 areas surrounded by glass: 3 bedrooms and a winter garden. The open-plan space is studded with standalone elements, like a kitchen, untreated stainless steel storage and the Stûv 22 stove. The idea was to use an insert that was as sophisticated in its design as its technology. Its strategic position, between the kitchen and the living area, right in the middle of a totally open space, combined with the two possible configurations (doors closed or open) were the reasons behind the choice of this model, in symbiosis with the mirror-polished stainless steel Poujoulat chimney, emerging like a carefully placed object on the roof, covered with perforated aluminium tiles.
© Courtesy of Lise Coirier & Gian Giuseppe Simeone, Spazio Nobile
While the plans of Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen were defined by a pared-down aesthetic, taken to the extreme, the couple soon came up with the idea that Portuguese artist, Bela Silva, could add even more to this idea of the central fireplace, using her unique creativity to bring together fire and architecture. She has found a way to bring warmth, both literally and more symbolically, into the open space, and break away from the often overly polished aesthetic of ultra-modern interiors. Inspired by traditional tall Scandinavian chimneys, clad in glazed ceramic tiles, as well as by the tiles found in Portuguese baroque churches and by the attention paid to the details specific to the aesthetics of the Art nouveau movement, the painter and ceramicist came up with the idea of matt white combined with a structure in the form of A3 tiles, arranged vertically to create an elongated silhouette, reaching towards both the lake and the sky. Known for her inspired grasp of colour, in this specific case, Bela Silva wanted instead to play with the Northern light, creating a subtle gradation around a white – that is not completely white – in infinite shades of grey. For this artist, who now spends her time between Lisbon and Brussels, the project forms part of an ongoing series, including several developed in partnership with architects and interior designers, both in Belgium and further afield, including Jacques Grange, Gert Voorjans, François Marcq, Lionel Jadot and Peter Marino. A true work of art, responding to the landscape and to the other architectural elements, this piece suggests the movement of water; a nod to the stunning lake visible from the house, Lake Siljan, as well as to her childhood, which she spent in Lisbon. Bela Silva also recognises the importance of dialogue: between herself and an architect, but also the less visible conversation between contrasting materials (in this case, glass wood and earth), or between different artistic movements and periods. A limitless medium for creativity and expression, earth (long considered to be a second-rate option) here makes itself at home in the most inspirational of interiors: a kind of nod to the loftily noble dimension of chimneys from centuries past.
© Courtesy of Lise Coirier & Gian Giuseppe Simeone, Spazio Nobile
For Walloon company Stûv and its partners Poujoulat, Europe’s leading manufacturer of chimneys based in Nivelles, this concept of The 25 Columns house was a no-brainer. With the focus on extreme simplicity, both in terms of form and its day-to-day use and maintenance, the Stûv 22 features retractable glass whose mechanism is cleverly housed in the frame of the door. Installed between two rooms, owners can enjoy the view of the fire from either side of the space, as they prefer. A real chameleon of a product, the Stûv 22 is also the only model on the market that can make the frame of the door and the runners disappear from view, thanks to patented technology. This technology means that decorative material can be introduced (earth-based cladding here), adding real value to this piece, which is designed to fit in seamlessly with the building’s architecture.
© Loulou d'Aki, courtesy of Spazio Nobile
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