ION

Shared kitchens work better when everyone has a place of their own. At The Crown in Bruges, Thomas Dejagere, Head of Sales at ION, explains why every student room comes with a locker for personal kitchen items.

👇 English subtitles available below.



(English subtitles)
In every student project, we have lockers in the kitchen. We provide these because we know that students also have personal items that they use in the shared kitchen and that they want to keep in a safe place, so that the jar of chocolate spread, the plates and the glasses do not grow legs. There is a locker provided for each room number. It is important to lock your locker, because otherwise things can still grow legs. We have been doing this for about eight years now in all our student projects, because we do hear and see that some things disappear. That is why this is a very easy system. We also receive very positive reactions from the students.

Building this close to the coast comes with very different possibilities in the Netherlands than in Belgium. At Catsand Island, Nicolas Devolder, Senior Sales Consultant at ION, and Mark Wouters from Mark Architecten explain how local planning rules shaped the scale of the country houses.

👇 English subtitles available below.



(English subtitles)
In Belgium, we do not build homes of this size so close to the sea. In the Netherlands, things work a little differently, don’t they, Mark? Yes, exactly. We demolished old barns here, which allowed us to build four homes of 1,000 cubic metres. We also made use of the country estate scheme, which allowed us to build another four homes of 1,800 cubic metres and two homes of 2,500 cubic metres, with outbuildings ranging from 120 to 200 square metres. In Belgium, we have the 1,000-cubic-metre rule. You are then still allowed to build an outbuilding of 40 square metres without an additional permit. That is, of course, something quite unique here. If this were located in Belgium, we would be looking at a completely different scenario. Yes, exactly.

Student life is easier when there is someone nearby who understands what daily life in the residence is really like. At The Crown in Bruges, Emmeline shows her room and explains how she helps fellow students as an extra point of contact within the building.

👇 English subtitles available below.



(English subtitles)
Hello. May we have a quick look at your room? Yes. If you feel comfortable with that, of course. Yes, it is tidy. Do you have a specific role here? Yes, I help Katrien, the concierge, so students can also come to me if they have problems. Okay. I am a bit of a point of contact for the students. If there is something, for example noise nuisance, or if they say: I do not know what to do with the washing machine, then they can come to me. Yes, it is nice if they can go directly to another student. If they have a problem, they will do that more quickly than if they have to... Yes, exactly, so that is nice. No rats or mice? No, not yet. So yes, this is my room. My bathroom is really dirty. We will leave that private. Well, very nice. A little TV. Yes, I am almost always here, so I really feel at home. My desk. I almost never sit here because I cannot study in my room. It does not work for me. That is not good, is it? Where do you study then? In the kitchen, STUVO, CoCon, VIVES itself. But not at this desk? No, I have too many distractions. You would think that in public places you have more distractions than in your own room? Yes, but that is the thing. When I am here, I think: ah, I can lie down in bed. Do you understand? So that is not good. Watch a film. Yes, it is really, it is really bad. Here is my fridge. My clothes, because yes, I really have a wardrobe completely full of clothes. It is really not normal. And then here is your bathroom? It is not very special. It is just a bathroom. Thank you for letting us have a look.

Luxury is not only about the size of a home, but also about its setting and the way it connects with nature. At Catsand Island in Cadzand, Nicolas Devolder, Senior Sales Consultant at ION, and Mark Wouters from Mark Architecten present a contemporary country house inspired by traditional Zeeland architecture.

👇 English subtitles available below.



(English subtitles)
Welcome to the most exclusive country house in Cadzand. We are standing on a one-hectare plot where we are going to build a country house of 1,000 cubic metres, with an additional outbuilding of 120 square metres. The architecture is inspired by traditional Zeeland architecture. We make use of brickwork, thatched roofs and black timber cladding. Every country house comes with an outdoor swimming pool as standard. Here on the left is the master bedroom with views over the creek and an en-suite bathroom. Here you can immediately see the interaction between indoors and outdoors. The nice thing is that you have terraces all around the house, and for the record, you decide entirely yourself how these are arranged. The view over the creek is further enhanced because we chose these ultra-slim window frames. Do you know what is also fantastic here? You wake up and the very first thing you see is nature coming to life. Just imagine it: sitting here in the evening with friends, lighting the barbecue, taking a cold b**r from the fridge, sitting back and simply enjoying the privacy, the peace and the surrounding nature. Here you can comfortably park two cars. The driveway is finished with shells, as a subtle reference to the fact that we are only 700 metres from the coast.

The best way to judge a neighbourhood is to ask the people who live there. At Waterfront in Waregem, Thomas Dejagere, Head of Sales at ION, catches up with residents Erland and Martine to hear why they still enjoy living here four years after moving in.

👇 English subtitles available below.



(English subtitles)
Erland is looking at the padel players, but we will leave that out. Erland and Martine are clients of mine who bought here about four years ago. Hello Martine. How are you? Good. The man of the house. Welcome. Do you enjoy living here? From the very first day. Very much. It is a beautiful view. That winter terrace is really impressive. Is it something you use a lot? A great deal. You can open it completely? And do you also sit here in winter? No. But for the New Year’s fireworks we sit here with the patio heater on. And during Waregem Koerse you also have a front-row seat here. We can see from Dentergem, across Drongen and the Flemish Ardennes, all the way to Harelbeke. That is unique. In winter, the cormorants sit by the ponds and sometimes they fly right past the window. And you also always see the visiting football supporters arriving here. Does that bother you? No, honestly. We actually enjoy it. It brings a bit of life. So this is the guest room. What do they call it? The master bedroom. Very nice, if you can wake up to this view every morning. Yes, that is lovely.

Privacy at Catsand Island is created through the landscape rather than hard boundaries. Mark Wouters from Mark Architecten, together with Nicolas Devolder, Senior Sales Consultant at ION, explains how creeks, gentle slopes and natural materials help the homes blend into their surroundings.

👇 English subtitles available below.



(English subtitles)
We have a kind of interplay here between architecture and nature. The landscaping provides privacy between the homes. We created a landscape that connects with the Zeeland landscape, with creeks and gentle slopes. And you can also see behind us how the buildings seem to blend into the landscape. In terms of architecture, we kept it simple: timber, thatch, brick and glass as a kind of modern touch.

Strong projects are often built on long-term partnerships. In Waregem, Thomas Dejagere, Head of Sales at ION, and Tim Wielfaert from Wielfaert Architecten look back on fifteen years of collaboration and the trust behind some of ION’s most ambitious developments.

👇 English subtitles available below.



(English subtitles)
You have been working with ION for fifteen years, since day one? Since the very beginning, even before your time. Even before my time, unbelievable. We started with Davy and Kristof right at the beginning in Kortrijk, with student housing. It was an immediate success, and it has continued ever since. We work together a lot and really enjoy doing so. And six projects today? I assume this is the biggest? To be honest, also the most beautiful. This is not something you come across in every city. If you compare ION with many other clients, what makes ION different? I think, first of all, the scale. With you, projects are always on a large scale. But the most important thing is that, although everything is highly professional, it has always felt very friendly. There has always been a very good relationship with the entire team.