Designed from the inside out, realizing a life-resistant living and working house on a plot in Buiksloterham for an architect couple. The preconditions: sustainable, maximum development of the plot, parking on site and free of welfare. The program: a sustainable home with workspace and painting studio, as much light, air and gardens as possible and a part to rent out.
A vertical city villa as a personal playground, with a back house for rent and a front house for ourselves. We play with light and space: from a 5 meter high open kitchen with glass balcony doors, to a closed void where you can withdraw without losing the view of the surroundings. Because the plot had to be completely built on, we brought greenery into the house with two indoor gardens.
As an interior architect, architect and artist, we have looked at the project from all sides. Use was paramount: the house was designed from the inside out, with its own line of furniture. Art and nature are essential. On the ground floor, the two come together in an indoor Japanese garden, surrounded by our studios. The walled roof garden brings landscaping into the house.
Interior, exterior and gardens are integrally designed. Large casement windows and subtle openwork surfaces in the brick facade allow the house to breathe. When the sun is at its warmest, cool air from the courtyard garden can flow into the house through openwork masonry, like ventes in southern countries. On the balcony, a large white outside curtain blocks the heat.
Well-insulated residential house with a green-blue roof, solar panels, district heating, heat recovery showers and natural ventilation. The patio functions as a green lung, there is a grape on the balcony and two host trees on the roof. There is also a water storage. On the ground floor, a fig tree grows in the front garden over the entire length of the house. An elevator makes it life-resistant and therefore even more sustainable.
The wish was a sustainable, life-resistant house, with a great need for light and greenery. Next to the stairwell there is an elevator that takes you to every floor, up to the roof garden. This provides for the wish for a garden in a place where the zoning plan did not provide for this. Two host trees, many plants and water storage make the roof a quiet private park.
It was the plan from the first sketch for the house: no roof terrace, but a real roof garden. The construction is made to support trees, with enough space for their roots and a water storage underneath. This fits in with the climate-proof city, in which greenery is indispensable to get rid of both the heat and the excess water.
