LANDSCAPE, FARMHOUSE, CONTEMPORARY, TRADITION
ai???Living on the edgeai??? has different meanings in our common spoken language, than in that one of architecture. It might signify, for instance, conducting your own life on the borderline, in a risky and dangerous way. Sometimes instead when people live ai???on the edgeai??? can also be intended they live on the fringe, they are alienated and therefore not integrated to the normal social life. Here instead is the location and the philosophy of the project itself, which determined the title of the building. It is located just on a desolate stretch of territory, on the edge of the city and its design represents a combination of elements belonging to a modern house and to a traditional Dutch farmhouse. So here it is, another boundary, now between a contemporary project, made with traditional components. Thatch is a very popular material used to cover roofs in Holland. It has very important characteristics in term of isolation and protection of the wooden structures. In the project, the use of it evolves, becoming also a second thick skin of all the outside walls of the building.
The thatched cladding in fact, begins just above the ground level and wraps up over all four fa ades, interrupted only by projecting canopies, and the windows, which, as vertical cuts, are deep slices into the roof. Daylight falls inside and lights up the inner spaces by giving them dynamicity during the day.
By night, instead the house radiates its light to its surroundings, revealing its presence in a silent landscape.
CREDITS
Designer: Arjen Reas
Location: Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
Project area: 744 m2
Floor area: ca 360m2
Project year: 2009-2010
Photographs: Kees Hageman
Construction: Adviesbureau Docter
Contractor: C.L. de Boer & Zn BV
Thatch: Voogt Rietdekkers
