ELKE VAN GOEL - TENARCHITECTS
TENARCHITECTS is a Belgian studio working across architecture, interiors and garden design, led by architect Elke Van Goel. The practice operates under three names: TENARCHITECTS for architecture and interiors, TEN STUDIO for an in-house furniture collection, and TEN GARDENS for Japanese-inspired garden design. Together they take on residences, restaurants, hotels, offices and historical renovations, all shaped by a timeless and understated approach.
Elke describes TEN's style simply: timeless architecture, tailored to the client, with every project unique enough that you can recognise the people who live or work there. "Most of our clients have already travelled a lot and are often creative people themselves, with particularly good taste and a clear idea of what they want. We're often not their first architect, they choose us very deliberately," she says. From there, the studio works in co-creation with the client throughout the design process, which is all about teamwork, Elke says.
That teamwork also shows in a project the studio is currently finishing, where the clients gave them a lot of freedom, including the choice to source vintage furniture piece by piece, alongside pieces by Hannes Peer. "Fantastic craftsmanship, what his team makes," she says. It's an approach TEN comes back to often, vintage furniture combined with pure craftsmanship, which is, in her view, how a project gets its soul.
Every project starts with Elke drawing the first sketches herself, by hand, with everything the client has told her in mind. From there the design moves into more detail, and that's when the choice of craftspeople comes in: together with the client, they decide which artisans to bring onto the project. "We always try to work with the best contractors and material suppliers," she says. "Many of the suppliers we have close ties with are also partners of The Hub, like Stoopen & Meeus, Sumum and Designs of the Time — who always deliver excellent work." When there are a lot of design choices still to make, Elke says, the studio turns to The Hub itself, or sends clients there directly.
When it comes to materials, TEN keeps coming back to honest, sustainable choices. For Elke, sustainability is not only solar panels on a roof, but timeless architecture and timeless materials: solid wood, artisanal materials. The studio recently designed an outdoor sculptural table in blue hardstone, a Belgian material, crafted locally by hand with a Japanese finish. "We're a Belgian office too, so that's three times Belgian," she says. "I think that's pretty sustainable." The colour palette follows the same idea: timeless colours found in nature, like deep greens and other natural tones. Colours are matched carefully throughout a whole building, with earthy tones, including tones taken from the natural stone, repeated through the rest of the palette.
Travel is the studio's main source of inspiration. "The trips we take are usually so inspiring that beautiful projects come out of them afterwards," she says. Last year the studio visited Osaka for the World Expo, and happened to arrive the evening a retrospective of Tadao Ando's work opened in one of his own buildings, an architect she deeply admires. "And I think a lot of fellow architects would feel the same." They were lucky enough that he was there himself. "He spoke with us for a bit, we told him how much we admired his work," Elke says. "It was an unexpected highlight of the trip." He signed their book, and Elke also brought home signed books for the rest of the team.
