Rotterdam apartment

Yuta Sawamura

• Architects

Applied products

VOLA KV1 one-handle mixer with interchangeable parts VOLA

VOLA main catalogue 11.47 MB

Aim pendant lamp by Flos offering flexibility in positioning Flos

Tech specification AIM 0.24 MB

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The apartment is situated in an area of West Rotterdam, which is called Delfshaven. It is part of an almost 200m long flat building from 1935 on a dike along the river Schie and consists of the ground floor and basically a one-sided basement level which opens to the water.

photo_credit Yuta Sawamura — Yuta Sawamura

The 100sqm apartment had been renovated in the 80s and sadly lost all its former charm and decorative elements of the 30s that some of the neighbour’s flats still show. Yet nothing had been done to improve acoustical and thermal insulation to the upper floors and the basement.

After curing the apartment and basically stripping it of any interior elements besides the staircase and the location of the restroom we inversed the former layout of the place. Kitchen, dining and living room, which had been on the upper floor, were moved downstairs to grant direct access to the garden and the water. Which meant placing the bedrooms and bathroom at the street level and increasing acoustical insulation to the upstairs neighbour.

Most of the spaces have a double function and even though the downstairs shows a completely open plan reuniting living room, dining area and kitchen there is still room for privacy if needed. The tall kitchen cupboards double as a room divider separating the main space from a zone for example reading a book, inviting friends to stay over or simply drying the laundry without putting it in the middle of the living room.

The upstairs is designed with a more secluded layout. Nevertheless by making the master bedroom slightly oversized it can also become like a more intimate second living room with space for instance for yoga, reading a book on the large window sill bench like shelf or enjoy a bath in the bathtub. Also by leaving the ceiling high door open in summer upstairs almost becomes an open plan layout again. Only the walk-in-wardrobe and the bathroom remain hidden behind cupboard-like doors.

Most of the furniture is build of either plywood or MDF, which was then treated to obtain a more distinct look. For example the upstairs cupboards in the corridor were dyed with an earl grey mixture before giving them a hardwax finish. For the walls we used lime plaster – raw for the downstairs and with green pigments for the bedroom.