Collection

Sohan

  • Date 2003 (not completed)
  • Address Bois des Nids d’Aguesses – 4860 Pepinster

In the early 2000s, Charles Vandenhove gradually moved away from the Netherlands to refocus his activities in Belgium. The Sohan project, however, still bears witness to the reputation the architect enjoys across the Moerdijck. But this time, it is no longer the man from Liège who is going to the Netherlands, but the Netherlands that is coming to Liège… Based in Eindhoven, the property developer Straet Holding saw the Pepinster area as an opportunity to create a village catering to an ‘affluent’ clientele seeking a second home. Acquired in 2001, the plots are spread between the former Sohan Castle and the site known as the ‘Bois des Nids d’Aguesses’, a beautiful natural area to the south-east of Pepinster. Vandenhove is proposing a project centred on two main areas. In the ‘Bois des Nids d’Aguesses’, the housing development comprises 82 terraced houses, 9 detached houses and a block of 18 flats. Drawing inspiration from the layout of Fredensborg designed by Utzon, Vandenhove has designed the ‘village’ on a sloping site where all the dwellings face south. Arranged around a main road, the houses are modest in scale. They are single-storey and offer between two and four bedrooms, depending on the type. Each has a small garden. In this architecture, where brick is showcased to its best advantage, Vandenhove combines dark bricks with light, untreated timber in dwellings featuring single-pitched roofs. Not far from there, the castle site has a more tourist-oriented focus. The orangery, the last remaining part of Sohan Castle, which was destroyed at the end of the Second World War, is due to be restored, and plans are in place for a hotel complex. A swimming pool and a fitness centre will complete the facilities. The project – perhaps too ambitious (in the press, Vandenhove spoke of ‘a Marshall Plan for Pepinster’) – will not go ahead, mainly due to opposition from part of the local population.

  • Description of the collection

    Sketches, plans, correspondence, photographs, press articles…
  • Volumetry 17 boxes (2.04 m)
  • Bibliography

    Jeanne & Charles Vandenhove Foundation Archives
  • AUTHOR AND DATE OF THE ENTRY Sébastien Charlier, 2023