The first thing you notice is the way the dark materials sit against the garden. Gravel, brick, wood and glass form a clear line around this woodland house, while the large plot and the tree canopy soften the edges. The house stands opposite a forest on a quiet road, but the connection to the site starts much closer in: with the path, the terrace and the low windows that pull the outdoors into view. It was designed for a family of four, on the footprint of a smaller home that had been demolished.

Built around the garden, not away from it

The setting shaped the plan from the start. There was room for a greenhouse, a large walnut tree and a garden layout that could work with the openings in the house. Instead of treating the plot as leftover space, the garden becomes part of the sequence from arrival to living areas. Gravel paths run along planting beds and the lawn opens beside the volume, so the house reads as a family home in nature rather than an object placed on top of it. The surrounding greenery also gives the dark exterior a sharper outline.

That exterior has the robust look the owners asked for. Horizontal brick bands, dark accents and wooden slats give the modern house in the woods a firm profile without breaking the calm of the site. The slats are not just a visual gesture; they also filter views and mark openings in the façade. In the images, they appear as a repeating rhythm across the upper part of the building and as a screen beside glass, which keeps the house present in the landscape without making it loud.

A wooden slat facade that filters light

Inside, the ground floor is organised as an open-plan living kitchen with clear corners for each use. The sitting area sits one step up, and that small shift changes the room immediately. It creates a more enclosed place to sit, while the broad low window brings daylight in close to floor level. A second opening with wooden slats adds a layer between inside and outside. The result is not one large room that behaves the same everywhere, but a sequence of zones that each respond differently to light and outlook.

The dining area and kitchen open more directly to the veranda. Here the ceiling of wooden slats pulls the light into lines and shadows, especially across the covered veranda where the view runs straight out to the garden. Glass doors connect the interior to the terrace, so the movement from table to outside is short and direct. The material shift from interior surfaces to timber overhead gives this part of the house a different tempo from the deeper sitting corner.

Rooms that each hold their own pace

The plan gives the family a clear division without closing rooms off completely. The sitting area stays tucked away, while the kitchen and dining zone remain open and easy to cross. That layered arrangement is visible in the way the openings are placed: low, wide glazing near the lounge, taller glass toward the veranda, and slatted elements where privacy is needed. The house keeps its open character, but each zone is anchored by a detail that tells you where you are.

Above, the first floor is reserved for the parents. The source describes it as the place where the requested sense of luxury belongs, but the architecture keeps that restrained. The emphasis is on the upper level as a separate domain within the family house, set above the more shared spaces below. In the images, the building mass reads as compact and stepped, with the roofline giving the house a strong silhouette against the trees.

Children’s rooms under the roof

The attic level holds the children’s rooms, and the small video in the ridge makes the top floor feel less sealed off. That opening at the roof peak brings a different kind of volume to the rooms below it. It is a modest move, but one that gives the upper floor a sense of height and a focal point in the roof. The project does not rely on decoration here; it uses the shape of the roof to create a more playful internal section.

Below ground, the souterrain adds another layer to the family home in nature. It has its own terrace and can be reached both from inside and from the garden, which makes it suitable for gatherings. That direct access matters in the overall layout: the lower level is not hidden away, but tied to the outside just like the main floor. The house therefore works as a stack of distinct zones, each with its own relation to light, level and landscape.

A lower level with its own terrace

The garden layout was drawn in response to the interior and the façade openings, so the views line up rather than drifting apart. From the house you see lawn, gravel and planting in a sequence that reinforces the geometry of the building. From the garden, the glazed openings keep the inside legible. Even the nearly finished greenhouse belongs to that idea, with the large plot accommodating more than just the house itself. It suggests that the site was planned as a whole, with the family home in nature at the centre.

Seen together, the brick, timber and glass create a quiet dialogue between the building and the forest opposite. The gravel paths bring a dry texture to the foreground, while the wooden slat facade and covered veranda mediate between sheltered and open space. It is this succession of thresholds, not a single statement, that shapes the project. The house feels measured from the outside, but the plan inside keeps shifting as you move from lounge to kitchen, from veranda to souterrain, and from the upper rooms back to the garden.

There is one more layer to the project’s story: a report on the family house was published in Stijlvol Wonen Magnum Edition. That publication is part of the wider visibility of the home, but the project itself is rooted in the visible facts on site — the demolished predecessor, the big garden, the walnut tree, the veranda and the rooms stacked around them. Together they make a woodland house that uses level changes, slatted timber and the garden layout to hold the family life of four in one place.