Residence in Amsterdam
- Julia Liese
Two architects and two children wanted a bright, open, and, at the same time, cosy home. Right in the middle of the Dutch housing crisis they found a suitable site on a recently developed triangular island known as Zeeburgereiland. The artificial island, which had been built at the beginning of the twentieth century just east of Amsterdam’s historic centre, had been used in the past as military grounds and is currently undergoing a transformation into a new residential district. Above all, it was the minimised building code, which stipulated only the maximum volume and the outer edges of the building, that made the piece of property – conceived for a conventional row-house – attractive to the architects; they were enamoured of the high degree of freedom this permitted in the design. The allowable building footprint measures precisely 6 × 13 metres. The house has four levels that are linked by single-flight lateral stringer staircases. The shared living spaces are situated on the ground floor and the second storey, and the bedrooms are on the first and third storeys. With its extensive glazing the residence opens on both sides: toward the northeast, facing the street and the water, towards the southwest facing a garden. During the summer months the balconies provide natural solar shading and, at the same time, a buffer zone to nearby buildings that are yet to come.
