Architect and urban planner Rémi van Durme has built his own home in a rural municipality in Walloon Brabant. The designer-occupant also acted as the builder of the house, which is a tribute to freedom.

I can vividly imagine the heated debates at the editorial meetings of many a well-meaning architecture magazine. The distinguished ladies and gentlemen presented with this little house are divided into two camps. Should we publish something like this, or rather not? The little house stands all alone, in the middle of nature no less, far away from everything. Is something like this still justifiable in times of a concrete ban, climate change, monster traffic jams and an environmental budget that is almost entirely gobbled up by sewerage systems? We’re not a weekend supplement, are we? I don’t want to put words in the ladies’ and gentlemen’s mouths, but personally I’m inclined to say no. Building in isolation is no longer of this age, and perhaps even criminal, as another distinguished architect once remarked.