Braem on his house

"The entire house is a poetic composition in which different rhythms are entwined. So, as the street noises fade out, a sheer kind of music resounds through the house and it is blissful, just like the fundamental geometrical schemes to which all shapes are submitted, proportions which are equally dominant in nature, i.e. the golden section. The general outlook is designed for a rational way of living. There are no dark corners, everything is bathed in light, all day long, and you can follow the scudding clouds or watch the moonlight shine on the clouds from the bed at night and feel at one with the course of the hours and the seasons.

This oneness with nature is the one true guideline of my life. My house is the epitome thereof and not in the least was I surprised when a catholic youth movement walked by and called out with one voice: "What an ugly house!" The smart ladies tripping by with their lap doggies disapprove of this house and the writer Godfried Bomans declared that it is an ill-mannered individual in distinguished company. All these things are a great source of satisfaction to me. "

(Renaat Braem, Het schoonste land ter wereld [The most beautiful country in the world], p. 113)