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Firm Architects has carefully organised zinc, mirror and brick elements to form a striking horizontal line around the interior of this loft apartment in Amsterdam’s De Pijp district. More
Design studio Beyond Space has created an office interior in Amsterdam that doubles as a showroom using rippling laser-cut fabric to form cave-like spaces for working. More
Sculptural furniture and French oak panelling define this plush family office in Amsterdam, which has been renovated by local studio Framework. More
Double-height shelving and custom glass vitrines create ample storage space in this Amsterdam apartment, which was designed by local studio i29 to accommodate the owner’s vast collection of art and books.Located in a former industrial area in the north of the city, the 180-square-metre apartment is on the second floor of a residential block and belongs to a writer and art collector.
Above: double-height storage walls divide the space. Top image: they include a mixture of cabinets and open shelving
Built in 2020, the apartment block was set up as a Collectief Particulier Opdrachtgeverschap (CPO), which means collective private commissioning. In the Netherlands, this is a form of social project development in which a group of individuals act as the client for a new-build project.
The building is developed as a group and each owner buys an empty shell. They can then design and build partitions in their own apartment according to their specific needs.
A green couch anchors the open-plan living room
Local studio i29 was commissioned to create a custom interior that would showcase the owner’s expansive personal library and an art collection of around 100 pieces.
“Having such a huge collection of artworks, our client wanted only one thing: to have the ultimate display and storage space,” i29 told Dezeen. “We started making a programme of requirements and calculating the exact amount of shelving we would need.”
i29 created a mezzanine level to house two bedrooms
The designers were presented with an open loft space with double-height ceilings and no fixed layout.
On the ground floor, i29 created an open-plan space for the entrance area, kitchen and living room. A series of small sculptures are displayed on glass shelves in the kitchen, while larger artworks are placed up against the walls or mounted on them.
The apartment accommodates more than 100 artworks
A mezzanine level was inserted within the double height space, housing a bathroom, two bedrooms and an office.
Two custom-designed larch wood storage walls span the full height of the apartment and include a mixture of cabinets and open shelving. They help to create a visual connection between the two levels, while concealing an integrated staircase that runs up to the mezzanine level.
The bespoke kitchen is finished in larch wood and matt grey HPL
The bespoke kitchen and all of the cabinets throughout the apartment are finished in a combination of larch and matt grey high-pressure laminate (HPL).
The floor is made from matching resin, as i29 wanted to keep the material palette deliberately neutral in order to let the art take centre stage.
i29 and Spacon & X named interior designers of the year at Dezeen Awards
“The stark and simple spatial interventions stand in contrast to the colourful pieces of art, balancing and supplementing each other,” the studio explained.
The mezzanine also houses a home office
In a similar apartment project featured on Dezeen earlier this year, EBBA Architects used structural ash and pine joinery – including a staircase, mezzanine and double-height storage wall – to connect the levels within a refurbished, open-plan apartment in London.
Photography is by Ewout Huibers.
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Amsterdam studio Barde + vanVoltt has inserted skylights and glass partition walls into this former garage to transform it into a light-filled family home that celebrates the building’s industrial past.Located in central Amsterdam, just a few steps away from the Rijksmuseum, the 100-square-metre space is on the ground floor of a residential terrace built in the 1930s. It originally hosted a hardware store but was most recently used as a garage.
Above: wood-framed glass doors lead into the bedrooms. Top image: a wood-panelled kitchen is located at the front of the apartment
Barde + vanVoltt was asked to transform the building into a wide and open family home for four that brings in as much natural light as possible. The brief also called for the use of sustainable and natural materials as well as a simple, minimalist interior that allows details to stand out.
“We wanted to keep the space as wide as possible without having corridors or a hallway because that’s what makes this space unique in Amsterdam,” Barde + vanVoltt co-founder Valérie Boerma told Dezeen. “Most apartments are divided over multiple levels and are very narrow.”
The dining room, kitchen and lounge share an open-plan space
Working to a six-month deadline, the studio’s first challenge was to channel natural light from the street-facing front of the building to the rear.
The large, double front doors that open up onto the road were switched from solid wood to glass, maximising the amount of light in the apartment’s open-plan kitchen, dining and living area.
The wooden doorframes are arched in a nod to art deco
At the rear of the building, Barde + vanVoltt raised the roof and converted the ceiling into skylights. Underneath, the plan accommodates a total of three bedrooms – a master with an en-suite and two children’s rooms that double as playrooms.
Each is delineated by timber-framed glass walls and doors, allowing natural light to filter into these darker spaces.
The apartments clay walls have built-in storage
The designers’ second challenge was balancing the integrity of the property with the needs of a young family.
“We drew inspiration from the building’s industrial past into the choice of materials and refined the selection based on durability and sustainability,” said the studio.
A free-standing tin bath anchors the en-suite bathroom
The building’s original concrete floor was retained and offset against natural clay walls and arched wooden door and window frames reminiscent of the art deco period.
“We wanted to add warmth to the concrete floor, so we designed the wooden Meranti doors with a reference in the arching detail to the 1930s when the property was built,” Boerma explained.
Standard Studio use skylights to funnel light into Amsterdam loft
The studio added industrial fixtures such as untreated wooden frames, a freestanding tin bath and sink in the en-suite, brushed and burnished copper tapware in the wet areas, and a kitchen island made from rolled steel with a quartzite benchtop.
Outside, the original hardware store signage on the building’s facade was left in place. In the summer, the wide double doors can be opened up and the pedestrianised street outside the apartment can be used as a terrace.
The kitchen features quartzite worktops
“The neighbourhood – made up of a few streets – is a very unique area in the city centre of Amsterdam,” explained Boerma. “It feels like a village, everybody knows each other and kids are playing together on the streets.”
Former inner-city garages can offer unique but sometimes awkwardly-shaped sites for development. In east London, architect Zoe Chan built Herringbone House on the non-linear site of a former car workshop, while in south London Tikari Works squeezed Pocket House into the space of a former garage, where the buildable area was only 35 square metres.
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Beyond Space has created a flexible office interior for a security company in Amsterdam using a colourful grid system that allows the user to change the layout when needed.Informed by an endless repeating grid system, the studio used a structure made from beams and columns to knit together two office floors.
Top: office interior by Beyond Space. Above: white aluminium beams and columns run throughout the interior
The rigid grid was constructed from aluminium to create a structural framework that gives the client the freedom to organise and reconfigure the space within it, by dismantling and moving walls as needed.
“Should the nature or ambitions of the company change, the grid offers flexibility. Walls can easily be dismantled and rebuilt on another point in the grid,” Beyond Space said.
Yellow-trimmed windows and doors frame private workspaces
Multicoloured trimmed doors and windows create privacy for workspaces and contrast against the rigid white framework. The studio also hoped the colour would emphasise the flexibility of the space.
“We wanted to put the emphasis on the fact that these doors and windows are infills in the grid and by making them a contrasting colour, the difference between the grid and the infills becomes clear,” Beyond Space cofounder Stijn de Weerd told Dezeen.
Plants are encouraged to grow around and up the frame
Painted concrete serves as a base for the office floor, while zoned areas and infill rooms were made from a wide range of materials including coloured MDF, corrugated sheets and fabrics.
Carpets in meetings rooms and felt contouring against corrugated-metal walls add texture and softness to the otherwise rigid theme.
Note Design Studio creates colourful interiors to “break the grid” of 1930s office building
“The corrugated metal, coloured MDF, felt, solid surface and carpet were chosen to create a diverse palette of different colours and rich textures which don’t remind you of a typical office,” said de Weerd.
Plants have been spread out throughout the space and add an organic feel to the aluminium grid.
Glass partitions divide the spaces within the white frame
A white perforated spiral staircase centres the space and links the two levels of the office.
Pastel-hued furnishings provide a contrast against the white grid and fixtures, as the studio said it was important to maintain a balanced feel.
“We wanted to combine the apparently opposite: strict but playful, cosy as well as radical,” said de Weerd.
Colourful furnishings contrast with the starkness of the fixtures
Beyond Space was launched in 2020 by Remi Versteeg and de Weerd, who had previously founded Space Encounters, and works across art, architecture and product design.
Among the architects’ projects at Space Encounters are a tile-clad office building on stilts above a brick warehouse and also and office interior which uses soft partitions to divide space.
Photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.
Project credits:
Project team: Remi Versteeg, Stijn de Weerd, Arnoud Stavenuiter, Menno Brouwer, Matilde ScaliContractor: Verwol, OpmeerPlants: Het Groenlab, AmsterdamContract furniture: Lensvelt Contract Furniture, BredaConsultant fire safety: DGMRStructural engineer: De Ingenieursgroep, Amsterdam
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Wooden detailing and black-painted steel fill the lofty interiors of The Gymnasium apartment that Robbert De Goede has built within an old sports hall in the Netherlands.Located near the centre of Amsterdam, the adaptive reuse project was developed by local studio Robbert De Goede as an unconventional yet homely dwelling for a family of four.
The Gymnasium is shortlisted for apartment interior of the year at the Dezeen Awards and was the winner of the Dezeen Awards 2020 public vote for the same category.
The Gymnasium is built within an old sports hall
“The objective was to design an intimate, liveable home,” said Robbert De Goede.
“This resulted in a minimal, industrial approach towards the architecture and a very personal approach towards the finishes, which reflects the clients as well – the owner of a fashion brand and a paediatrician,” the studio explained.
“They are a very down to earth family, which resulted in a very spacious and luxurious home, but definitely not a showroom for design props.”
The apartment’s living spaces are at ground level
The Gymnasium’s main living areas are contained on the ground floor, while a new mezzanine level inserted around the gymnasium’s perimeter hosts the bedrooms and bathrooms.
A basement, which formed part of the original building, contains a gym and a sauna, alongside the dwelling’s technical equipment.
Steel window frames have been added to complement the existing structure
The basement was originally only 1.2 metres in height, so to ensure its usability, the studio raised its ceiling – creating a cosy, elevated living room above it at ground level.
This living area is accessed by a bleacher-like staircase and is intended to offer the family a secluded, intimate seating area, reading space or home cinema.
An elevated sitting area is positioned above an existing basement
The only original element of The Gymansium that was retained was its existing steel structure, which was initially hidden behind a flat ceiling.
This ceiling was removed as part of the construction process to create the apartment’s loft-like atmosphere and also introduce 10 skylights that maximise the light inside.
Old Spanish workshop converted into tactile family home by Nomos
To complement The Gymansium’s existing structure, Robbert De Goede designed the new mezzanine level with a matching black-painted steel structure.
This is left exposed throughout, and paired with a black staircase and window frames.
Wooden details and furnishings are used to warm the apartment
Another key addition of the apartment is its new foundation, which features 18-metre-long piles that contain a heat-exchanging system to help heat and cool the dwelling.
Teamed with 44 rooftop solar panels that provide electricity, this heat-exchanging system is designed to reduce the dwelling’s carbon footprint.
A black-painted staircase leads up to a new mezzanine level
The interior finishes of The Gymnasium are characterised by a combination of different wood finishes and tactile furnishings.
According to Robbert De Goede, this was to warm its industrial structure and create a “building you can touch, maybe even smell sometimes”.
The mezzanine level contains the bedrooms and bathrooms
Among the wooden details are chunky central columns, the rough countertop made from larch in the kitchen and unfinished oak on the underside of the mezzanine level.
The smooth stair railings, which are made from yellow cedar, are modelled on the work of Japanese sculptor Shimpei Arima who uses cedar to create tactile sculptures that offer comfort to users.
Each space is complete with sculptural lighting by the likes of Delta Light, Bocci and Tom Dixon, alongside furnishings ranging from one-off vintage pieces to statement furniture by Stella Works, Flexform and Lucie Koldova.
A bathroom on The Gymnasium’s mezzanine level
The Gymnasium is one of five dwellings shortlisted for apartment interior of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2020. This includes the La Nave apartment in Madrid that Nomos built within a former print shop and Coffey Architects’ overhaul of a Grade II-listed school classroom.
Other recent adaptive reuse projects on Dezeen include Richard Parr Associates’ self-designed studio in a 19th-century barn in the Cotswolds and an old nylon factory that was converted into “cathedral-like” office space by HofmanDujardin and Schipper Bosch.
Photography is by Marcel van der Burg.
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Dutch studio Unknown Architects used four oxide-red steel columns to open up the previously constricted interior of this apartment in Amsterdam.House With Four Columns is a two-floor apartment situated in Amsterdam’s De Baarsjes neighbourhood.
The apartment previously had old-fashioned interiors and, despite measuring 200-square-metres, a poor sense of space as the ground floor was dominated by a central load-bearing wall.
Unknown Architects was brought on board to refine the home’s floor plan and give it a more modern fit-out.
The practice first set about removing the obtrusive load-bearing wall. In its place simply stands a series of four exposed steel columns, turning the ground floor into a singular open-plan living space.
When the columns first arrived on-site they had been finished with an oxide-red primer, but due to Dutch safety regulations, a black fire-resistant coating had to be applied.
Instead of leaving them like this, the practice decided to add a top coat of paint that matched the columns’ original shade.
“As a result, the steel structure becomes the most distinctive element of the interior, which makes sense to us because it is the most dramatic element in the transformation,” the studio told Dezeen.
With the load-bearing wall gone, the ground floor is instead anchored by three elements – the first is a boxy white volume that accommodates a fridge, wardrobe, toilet and extra storage space.
The second element is the nut-wood breakfast island in the kitchen, which is topped with grey marble. The third is the gently twisting staircase that leads down to the basement level.
Surrounding walls on the ground floor are painted white, and the floor is smooth concrete. The columns are complemented by an oxblood-coloured leather sofa, which backs onto a tall wooden bookshelf.
Thomas Geerlings converts canal-side Amsterdam warehouse into contemporary home
There is also a couple of contemporary artworks and a striking pendant lamp composed of an interlocking circle and square-shaped lights.
The basement also has a central load-bearing wall. It’s punctuated by two openings, however, the practice was unable to add more because of the high groundwater level and subsequent risk of leakage.
Wide doorways have been introduced in House With Four Columns’ bedrooms to improve sightlines throughout the rest of this level and foster a sense of spaciousness.
Unknown Architects was established in 2012 by Daan Vulkers and Keimpke Zigterman. The practice has previously overhauled a corner-plot property to revive its original decor features and updated a 200-year-old home to feature a twisting staircase.
Photography is by MWA Hart Nibbrig.
Project credits:
Architect: Unknown ArchitectsEngineer: De IngenieursgroepContractor: To BuildCarpenter: Houtwerk Delft
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