Poot Architecture
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Sarah Poot creates everyday architecture that brings us home. Rational but also uninhibited.
Concepts and references can be found between the lines, are not compulsive.
Architecture should never be literal. Quality is formed in the wings. Unspoken. Subtle. The lecture goes deeper into the meanings behind the image, behind the finished photo.
Where does beauty arise?
Sarah Poot (1978) has been running the office POOT architecture since 2014. The office consists of a team of seven, each team member having his own qualities within the functioning of the office: scenography, urban development and urban design, participation coordination, interior architecture, …
Poot Architectuur
In a short span of six years, the agency’s portfolio has a diverse range, ranging from new construction and renovation of private projects to a number of impressive public projects. POOT architecture has won several Open Calls (new cultural center, renovation of the town hall of Wingene, master plan for residential development in Lint), as well as at Winvorm (lookout tower in the Gardens of Stene, renovation of the Sint-Jans-Gasthuis in Lo-Reninge). The agency carried out various projects for AG Vespa in Antwerp. In spring, the office was appointed architect for the renovation and extension of the school H. PiusX in Antwerp and this summer, Poot architecture was selected together with Dries Otten to design a serene farewell room for the main cemetery in Kontich.
Sarah studied architecture at the Henry Van de Velde Institute Antwerp and afterwards did an internship at the office of architect Joachim Walgrave. After two years of experience at Huiswerk architects, Sarah worked together with Luc Roegiers for eight years. Since 2019 she has been a permanent member of Gecoro Mortsel and Sarah teaches at the Faculty of Architecture of KU Leuven – Campus Gent Sint Lucas.
In 2020 things go fast, a lot of projects reaches the social media and the press. The Sint-Jans Gasthuis project from Lo-Reninge was included in the Architecture Yearbook 2020.
A selection of these projects:
On the website of Archello and Archdaily we find the housing project VINKEN (2017-2019):
Pieter Geerts
Pieter Geerts
Pieter Geerts
“Living more compactly is necessary, also in the suburbs. A plot that used to be a single-family house is divided into two lots. Within the strict straitjacket of the regulations of the municipality, we try to create architecture that is modest and blends in with the environment but is distinctive. The design became a challenge to mould the standards and interpret them as broadly as possible. We do not colour within the lines, but on the lines. A dormer window is placed on the edge, giving it the impression of a turret. The facade is made of white stone with a red joint. The chimney shape is used to provide a skylight. For the sake of orientation, the living space is designed as a through-sun. The kitchen with a “porch” is placed on the front facade. “
Jef Jacobs
Jef Jacobs
Jef Jacobs
The project LOENSDELLE BIS was featured on Archdaily. This concerns a conversion from a horse stable to a residence. Throughout history, the building has been renovated several times, creating a strange composition of windows on the facade. “The grand space is impressive. Interventions must be minimal: some window and roof openings have been added, the attic floor will be replaced by a new open plank mezzanine floor, a staircase and a kitchen unit will be added. Nothing else. The new planks (as a shelter and mezzanine floor), the plastered panelling and framing of the windows, the bare walls, the new steel exterior joinery: everything turned white and light grey. In this way, the old and new details and the charm of the historic, structural elements come into their own.”
POOT architectuur
POOT architectuur
POOT architectuur
The renovation project KISTEMAECKER from 2017-2018 also receives attention on Archdaily. “An industrial warehouse in an enclosed urban fabric is being converted into a residence. The new structural elements – walls and roof – are executed in CLT plates, in combination with fine steel columns. The subtlety of the new construction contrasts with the old brick wall. We therefore leave the old walls intact and illuminate them by means of skylights.”
Pieter Geerts
Pieter Geerts
Pieter Geerts
Pieter Geerts
Afasia Archzine features house FERDINAND (2018-2019), as a successful renovation of a mansion into a home for a newly composed family.
“Only the front part is preserved. A relatively heavy program and a north-oriented rear facade require a well-thought-out compact stacking. The classic dark core is illuminated by means of a vide. A concrete structure is introduced which gives the modest house a grandeur and allure. The limited surface area is compensated by large heights and gives the rooms a lavish character. The octagonal columns allow for a nice connection with the diagonal beams and are a reference to classic columns. We also look for this classic elegance in the further materialization: for example, by means of marble strips in the floor that form the rooms.”
Lisa Van Damme
Lisa Van Damme
Lisa Van Damme
In 2017, Dag Boutsen selected Sarah Poot’s own home in the BELGIAN TOPARCHITECTS series for an exclusive report for the VRT. Here you can watch this broadcast again. In 2011 Sarah built her own home on a corner plot of barely 78 m2 in Antwerp, which – despite the limited surface area – looks very spacious. “POOT architecture stands for timeless architecture, based on a great sense of space. It is soft and tough at the same time.” (Dag Boutsen, Dean of KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture, Brussels and Ghent Campuses).
Every project, of whatever scale, bears witness to unprecedented sophistication and a high level of ambition. Nothing has been left to chance. Searching for very precise solutions in both small and large projects. Everything is continuously questioned and researched. Both the theoretical reflection and the building itself exude the same conviction: to design space in a socially relevant and yet timeless way, from the context, from the needs, from the preconditions, from the vision.
