Full essay at: Marie-José Van Hee Architecten: More Home, More Garden, edited by Hilde Peleman, and Katrien Vandermarliere
[Ghent: Copyright Slow Publishing, 2019], 217-229

“The side of the smooth green hill, torn by floods, may at first very properly be called deformed; and on the same principle, though not with the same impression, as a gash on a living animal. When a rawness of such a gash in the ground is softened, and in part concealed and ornamented by the effects of time, and the progress of vegetation, deformity by this usual process, is converted into picturesqueness; and this is the case with quarries, gravel pits, etc., which at first are deformities, and which in their most picturesque state, are often considered as such by a levelling improver.”
Sir Uvedale Price. Essays on the Picturesque, Vol. 1 [London: J.G. Barnard, 1810], 195

A first look at the material library at the office of Marie-José Van Hee as it stands today reveals a quest for material authenticity. The meeting table in the centre is guarded by a collection of samples which is very telling of the conditions with which the architect associates physicality. The library is even more revealing for what it lacks than for what it possesses. In an era of industrially-processed ‘perfect’ products, it displays an array of handcrafted and seemingly imperfect materials. The absence of plastics and metals, the limited presence of glass and the preference for solid bricks with no signs of vitrification nor any other kind of superficial modification seem to articulate an argument against the effects of industrialisation. The choice of Delft tiles, which always result in subtle, sequin-like surfaces that exhibit a lack of homogeneity in their colour, superficiality and edges, indicates a preference for soft variation and textured reality. Even in the shelves reserved for wood, despite containing some laminated blocks, it is raw solidity that dominates, not to mention the grey pieces of stone. If we turn around, the picture is no different, yet in this case it is the elevation, the face of materials, that takes prominence over other aspects. The terrazzo and the fabrics seem to possess a special intensity of colour, and in the way they display their grain, the wooden panels acquire a transparent and multi-faceted condition, dexterously achieved through successive layers of primer and a richly pigmented paint. Ultimately, this material library represents the conviction that it is the tactile, material and physical condition of architecture that determines its experience.

Opening movements: from symbolic volumes to humanised interior spaces

The main façade of Marie-José Van Hee’s first fully independent work, the Derks Lowie House, developed from 1983 to 1986, bears a resemblance to those of her postmodern contemporaries in the iconicity of its pitched-roof, and the symmetrical array of windows and the gable at the front, but the architect’s real intentions are unveiled inside, through the embodiment of an interior domain freed from any linguistic connotations, driven exclusively by the experience of space. The contrast between the exterior image of the house, still embedded in the symbolism of its time, whose character can be easily reflected through photography, and the sophistication of an interior space whose humanism can only be experienced through a direct visit, really set the tone for the rest of Van Hee’s career. […]