Project X
(text by Maarten Willems)
Photographs © Christian Richters
Behind the somewhat mysterious name ‘Project X’, hides the design
of René van Zuuk and his family’s own residence. The villa
with a small office space is located right next to the architect’s
former residence Psyche in Almere’s The Fantasy district, an area
for experimental housing. Because the old house serves as his architect’s
office since 2004, it occurred that the two plots could be consolidated
into one garden. The garden area is optimized by leaving only the width
of a parking space between Project X and its neighbouring house.
Photographs © Christian Richters
From an urban point of view three major considerations were important:
the box-shaped appearance of all the Fantasy dwellings, the fixed building
line and the pattern of alternating building heights. Placing the lower
storey half below ground level resulted in House X being lower than the
adjacent dwellings, thus fitting in the height sequence. The distance
from the living room to the water is reduced to half a metre, creating
a sense of living along the waterfront despite the rather modest size
of the canal. This feeling is being intensified by the large expanse of
glass in the living room offering a panoramic view on the canal.
Photographs © René van Zuuk Architekten
bv
Only the exceptionally high entrance door infringes the closed appearance
of the box-shaped upper storey enclosing the bedrooms. Its façade
is cladded with large thin cement tiles with a continuing branch-like
pattern of grooves softening and reviving the rigid box shape. The scanting
daylight entering the bedrooms comes through rooflights and a few subtle
‘eyelets’ in the façade. Because of the small dimensions
of the façade openings the main volume remains intact. The upper
volume is separated from the lower storey by means of a glass strip. On
the garden side the strip is storey high.
Photographs © Christian Richters
The basic design is largely defined by the latitude enabled by the Dutch
Building Decree. The maximum volume allowed on the particular location
is 500 m³, while the residence plus office required 750 m³.
Nowadays the Building Decree creates the opportunity to build up to 2.5
metres outside an external wall, without submitting a planning application
under the condition that it does not border a public street or public
park. Therefore the building part perpendicular to the street is maximized
in length to create as much extra building volume as possible. According
to another provision in the Decree the extension can only start one meter
from the front façade.
Photographs © Christian Richters
To provide the ground-floor level with a uniform width, the upper floor
protrudes one meter in the direction of the street. For the office section
the rule that allows an annexe up to thirty square metres without a planning
permission is utilized. This extra part is constructed as a basement to
make it secondary to the living area, despite its street side location.
To emphasize its commercial and subordinate character the exterior concrete
surface is left exposed.
Inventive interpretation of these loopholes in the legislation has resulted
not just in the space required, but also in unprecedented restrained and
rich architecture.
Photographs © Christian Richters
René van Zuuk
Dutch Buildings
Almere Buildings
Project X, Almere - Credits:
Location: De Fantasie 8, Almere/ NL
Client: René van Zuuk & Marjo Körner
Program: Villa
Office: René van Zuuk Architekten b.v., Almere / NL
Design: René van Zuuk
Structural Engineer: Van de Laar, Eindhoven / NL
Site area: 454 m²
Floor area: 215 m²
Cubage: 780 m³
Start of planning: 2003
Start of construction: 2004
Completion: 2008
Project X Almere images / information from Rene van Zuuk Architekten
050109
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Project X Almere - page : adrian welch /
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