Multiple houses one home

With this unique project architect Oliver Spiekermann has created a portal between the future and the past. The “House made of Houses” is a contemporary and distinctive building that blends in beautifully to the historic Church Square directly adjacent to it, in Beelen, Germany.

Progressive Redesign

The development of historic town centres is a necessary but complicated undertaking, especially as architects try to make built history tangible, while complementing it with new buildings.

In close vicinity to the Church Square in Beelen, the existing building required extensive renovation. Architect Oliver Spiekermann created a progressive redesign, picking up on the colours and materials of the old Church Square, thereby sensitively honouring the local history. Instead of demolishing the existing building, the local architect decided to retain the base of the project with its basement and add new superstructures. Three independently usable houses now share this base. The superstructures follow the style of a typical farm with various buildings into modern, timeless architecture. Its striking appearance gives the property its name today: the “House made of Houses”.

Inspiration without borders

A clear distinction can be seen and felt between the original building base and the new superstructures given by their materiality and colour scheme. To create a coherent and distinguished look, the architect looked beyond the borders of his nation and found a perfect fit in a neighbouring country: Cassia Red, from the Belgian wienerberger plant in Kortemark.

He chose this special clay product for the façade of the ground floor, inspired by the quarry stone used for the former construction of the Beelen church. “As with the quarry stone of the historic church, no two stones are the same here. That’s exactly the individuality we were looking for and found at wienerberger,” explained Oliver Spiekermann.

First timer

The Terca Cassia Red object sorting was used for the first time ever in Germany for this project. The production takes place in special kilns, of which there are only a few still existing throughout Europe.

The Cassia brick is just under half a metre long and comes in a double format in width. The special feature: The bricks are equipped with a predetermined breaking point and are only cut by hand on site. The brick then has a rough and a smoother side, which can be laid irregularly as required. “This gives the façade a particularly intense impression of craftsmanship, randomness and uniqueness from pre-industrial times,” describes Oliver Spiekermann.