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    Multipurpose rooms optimise space at Ulli Heckmann’s Rotterdam apartment

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    A bedroom incorporating a bathtub and a window bench is one of several versatile spaces architect Ulli Heckmann created when renovating this compact apartment in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

    Heckmann and his partner, the designer Nienke Bongers, bought the apartment in the Delfshaven neighbourhood in 2020 with the aim of refurbishing it to suit their personal tastes.
    Multipurpose rooms were used to optimise space at Ulli Heckmann’s Rotterdam apartmentThe 100-square-metre property is spread across the ground floor and basement of a brick apartment building dating from 1935 that stretches along a dike on the river Schie.
    Previous renovations in the 1980s had stripped away all of the interior’s original features, so the couple decided to completely gut the spaces and rebuild them using a modern and affordable material palette.
    The open-plan kitchen and living area receive daylight from the gardenThe existing layout did not make the best use of the garden access, so Heckmann moved the bedrooms upstairs and created a large living space below with direct access to the outdoors.

    “The original downstairs plan showed one room facing the garden and one towards the street, which was quite gloomy and dark,” the architect told Dezeen.
    “Since the new downstairs is basically mono-orientated, an open layout with the kitchen cupboard as a room divider seemed the best solution in terms of space with an option for privacy.”
    Heckmann completely rebuilt the interior spaces using affordable materials. Photo is by Yuta SawamuraThe largely open-plan configuration creates a space for cooking, eating and socialising that receives plenty of daylight from the large windows at one end.
    Freestanding cupboards screen a small private space that Heckmann explained can be used for “reading a book, inviting friends to stay over or simply drying the laundry without putting it in the middle of the living room.”
    The kitchen is divided by a wooden cupboard unit for privacy. Photo is by Yuta SawamuraThroughout the property, built-in storage helps to optimise and organise space, allowing the interior to be used in different ways at different times. Examples include a hidden desk in the children’s bedroom and a window bench in the main bedroom.
    “Most of the rooms are not limited to only one purpose throughout the day and night,” said Heckmann, “which helps tremendously for the use of the space – especially as a family.”

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    The layout of the upper floor is more compartmentalised than the basement level; however, a full-height mirrored door at the end of the hall can be left open to ensure the spaces feel connected.
    The two bedrooms at either end of the plan are separated by a walk-in wardrobe and a shower room hidden behind cupboard-like doors.
    The main bedroom integrates a bathtub that can be hidden behind a curtainIn addition to the bed and window bench, the main bedroom contains a bathtub set on wooden blocks that can be screened off using a curtain.
    “The need to create multifunctional spaces is one of the reasons why we decided to have the bathtub in the bedroom,” Heckmann explained. “Also, we quite like that it becomes an object in our daily life instead of hiding it away.”
    Most of the furniture was built by Heckmann and Bongers with stained or dyed plywood and MDFThe couple had wanted to use natural materials where possible to completely revamp the interior, but the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic caused prices to soar and subsequent lockdowns made commissioning specialist trades much more difficult.
    Heckmann and Bongers therefore designed and built most of the furniture themselves, using plywood or MDF that they stained or dyed to give the materials a more unique finish.
    The bedroom shelf and the hall cupboards are made from eucalyptus plywood tinted with an earl-grey mixture, while the bedhead is MDF with a hardwax finish.
    The bedhead unit is made from MDF with a warm-toned hardwax finishLime plaster was used on the walls throughout the apartment. The downstairs spaces were left raw and natural, while the bedroom has green pigment added to give it a subtle hint of colour.
    For the kitchen, Heckmann used MDF boards with oak veneer and a countertop with a dark Forbo linoleum surface. The cupboard under the stairs features an oak frame surrounding polycarbonate panels, while the staircase podium is made from painted MDF.
    A hidden desk in the children’s bedroom helps to optimise space usageUlli Heckmann completed his Diploma studies at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, in 2006 and worked for several years for agencies in Germany and France, including Maison Edouard François.
    He founded his architecture and design studio in Paris in 2013 and now works on projects across Europe, ranging from object and interior design to private housing and architectural competitions.
    Other recent Rotterdam projects featured on Dezeen include a floating cross-laminated timber office and a multi-faceted auditorium designed using computer modelling.
    The photography is by Ulli Heckmann unless otherwise stated.

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      Barde vanVoltt gives historic Haarlem house a contemporary update

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      Interiors studio Barde vanVoltt has renovated this early 1900s house in the Dutch city of Haarlem to forge a strong connection between the building’s past and present, grounding the space with warm woods and tactile textures.

      The owners – a young family of four – wanted a home that would stand the test of time while telling Dutch practice Barde vanVoltt to “surprise us”.
      Barde vanVoltt had overhauled an early 20th-century house in HaarlemIn answer, the studio worked to create an interior that fuses the past and the present.
      “Stepping into this house is a journey through time, a reminder that architecture is a dialogue between generations,” the studio told Dezeen.
      “Meticulously preserving its historical charm, the house’s design seamlessly integrates contemporary features, creating a harmonious blend that transcends eras.”

      The studio added an extension to the rear of the homeTo address the narrow footprint of the house – a typically Dutch feature – internal walls were either removed, widened or replaced with glass panel doors.
      The back of the property was transformed with an extension and concertina glass doors to maximize the sense of light and space.
      The extension houses the kitchen and dining area”With the extension on the ground floor, we wanted to create contrast with the original architecture,” said Barde vanVoltt. “The understated square modern architecture, due to its shape and angular position, blends perfectly with the past.”
      “With the historic facade at the front, we took advantage of the space at the rear, extending the kitchen and living areas into the garden.”
      A vintage sandstone table centres the living roomThe practice carefully aligned the new design elements with shapes drawn from the architectural features of the house, with the new full-height door openings echoing the proportions of the living room’s original windows.
      In the attic, a guest room doubles as a playroom. Barde vanVoltt infused this once-dark space with natural light via a skylight, “allowing guests to sleep under the stars”.
      Barde vanVoltt retained Haarlem House’s original stained glass windows”Dutch houses are noted for their sloping attic roof lines,” the studio said. “For the children’s bedrooms, we followed this structural line and created custom bunk beds that combine sleep, storage, and space for play.”
      The material palette includes a range of mid- and dark-toned timbers that bring a sense of warmth and tactility to the home.

      WillemsenU submerges house under the ground in the Netherlands

      These are complemented by natural materials including stone and linen.
      “Our colour scheme always consists of earthy colours like moss green, a faded terracotta, grey concrete and off-whites,” the studio said. “For this residence, we brought them in line with the original colours from the existing tiles and stained glass.”
      Custom bunk beds feature in the children’s bedroomsThe furniture edit features Barde vanVoltt’s favoured mix of statement pieces alongside handmade and bespoke elements.
      Selected pieces reflect the architectural style of the building such as the Lot table by Tecta in the study, as well as Gerrit Thomas Rietveld’s 1934 Zig Zag chair and his Steltman chair from 1963, which was the last chair ever created by the Dutch designer.
      The playroom, dining area and bedroom all have specially-made seating upholstered in Kvadrat fabrics, while the bedrooms and study feature bespoke beds and closets.
      Wooden blinds mirror the linear pattern of the bathroom tiles”We love creating interiors full of handmade, bespoke furniture pieces with refined details,” said Barde vanVoltt. “The headboard of the master bedroom is an art piece in itself. The walnut slats are slightly curved and give it a very sophisticated look.”
      The square coffee table in the living room – made from a single piece of sandstone – is a vintage piece from Atelier Uma.
      Barde vanVoltt created a custom headboard in the primary bedroomFor the lighting scheme, Barde vanVoltt set out to create the right balance between functional and decorative lighting, collaborating with lighting experts PSLab to create a “warm and cosy atmosphere.”
      Other Dutch homes that have recently been featured on Dezeen include a house with a hexagonal footprint in Amsterdam and a Hobbit-style residence that is partially buried underground.
      The photography is by Thomas de Bruyne.

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      Space Projects creates Amsterdam store with thatched hut for Polspotten

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      A curvilinear thatched hut has been paired with terracotta-hued tiles at the Amsterdam store for homeware brand Polspotten, which was designed by local studio Space Projects.

      The studio created the store to straddle a shop and an office for Polspotten, a furniture and home accessories brand headquartered in the Dutch capital.
      Visitors enter the Polspotten store via an oversized triangular entrancewayCharacterised by bold angles and arches, the outlet features distinctive terracotta-coloured walls and flooring that nod to traditional pots, Space Projects founder Pepijn Smit told Dezeen.
      “The terracotta-inspired colours and materials refer to the brand’s first product, ‘potten’ – or pots,” said Smit, alluding to the first Spanish pots imported by Erik Pol when he founded Polspotten in the Netherlands in 1986.
      The interconnected spaces are delineated by cutoutsLocated in Amsterdam’s Jordaan neighbourhood, the store was arranged across a series of open-plan rooms, interconnected by individual geometric entryways.

      Visitors enter at a triangular opening, which was cut away from gridded timber shelving lined with multicoloured pots that mimic totemic artefacts in a gallery.
      A curvilinear thatched hut provides a meeting spaceThe next space features a similar layout, as well as a plump cream sofa with rounded modules and sculptural pots stacked in a striking tower formation.
      Travelling further through the store, molten-style candle holders and Polspotten furniture pieces were positioned next to chunky illuminated plinths, which exhibit amorphously shaped vases finished in various coral-like hues.

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      Accessed through a rectilinear, terracotta-tiled opening, the final space features a bulbous indoor hut covered in thatch and fitted with a light pink opening.
      The hut provides a meeting space for colleagues, according to the studio founder.
      “The thatch, as a natural material, absorbs sound as well,” explained Smit.
      The store provides an art gallery-style space for homewareNext to the hut, Space Projects created an acoustic wall illustrated with “hieroglyphics” of Polspotten products, which references the gallery-like theme that runs throughout the outlet.
      “The store was inspired by Polspotten’s use of traditional techniques combined with a collage of their reinterpreted archetypes,” said Smit.
      It is also used as an office spaceElsewhere in Amsterdam, Dutch practice Studio RAP used 3D printing and algorithmic design to create a “wave-like” facade for a boutique store while interior designer Linda Bergroth created the interiors for the city’s Cover Story paint shop to streamline the redecorating process for customers.
      The photography is by Kasia Gatkowska.

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      De Durgerdam hotel takes over 17th-century sailor’s inn on dyke outside Amsterdam

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      Dutch hospitality company Aedes has pushed Amsterdam’s building restrictions to their limit to convert a heritage-listed tavern into an all-electric hotel.

      De Durgerdam hotel occupies one in a row of almost identical gabled buildings perched on a seawall on lake IJmeer, which together make up the small village of Durgerdam near Amsterdam.
      Constructed in 1664, the building originally served as an inn for sailors and fishermen, its white-painted clapboard facade acting as a beacon for boats that could pull right up to its deck in the Zuiderzee bay of the North Sea.
      De Durgerdam hotel is set on a seawall outside AmsterdamDue to recurring flooding, the village was cut off from the sea with the construction of a dam in 1932, turning the bay into a freshwater lake while the inn became a ferry terminal and later a cafe and restaurant.
      Following a five-year restoration led by Aedes, the building reopened this year as a boutique hotel with 14 rooms and interiors designed by material research studio Buro Belén.

      De Durgerdam, the first hotel to be owned and operated by the Aedes, provided an opportunity to see how far heritage restrictions could be stretched to make the building as sustainable as possible.
      The hotel occupies a former inn with a white-painted clapboard facade”What we have done in terms of sustainability is fairly innovative for a historic building of this kind,” said founder Paul Geertman. “We have pushed the boundaries as far as we could to reduce its environmental impact.”
      The 17th-century building now runs on renewable energy – provided by 32 rooftop solar panels and a green energy supplier – and its operations are entirely gas-free.
      This was made possible via meticulous insulation and four separate heat pumps, which cover all of the building’s heating and cooling needs in lieu of a traditional boiler.
      The ground-floor restaurant integrates a small lounge areaWith limited space in the old inn, the heat pumps are dotted across the garden where they are hidden in tiny outbuildings complete with gables and clapboards, which Aedes constructed especially to work around local building codes.
      “A heat pump in Amsterdam normally has to be inside of your building, otherwise you just don’t get the licence,” Aedes head of sustainability Esther Mouwen told Dezeen. “So we had to build a house around them.”
      The windows posed a similar struggle, as the municipality rarely allows the distinctive hand-blown glazing of heritage buildings to be changed.
      But Aedes was able to source an energy-efficient triple-glazed model with a pattern of tiny dots across its surface, which creates the optical illusion of looking at rippled glass.
      An Ingo Maurer chandelier hangs above a vintage sharing table in the restaurantThe renovation itself was a balancing act between changing as little as possible about the building while ensuring that it could survive for another 500 years.
      Although from the outside, the three-storey building looks almost exactly like it did when it was first constructed, large parts of its structure had to be carefully dismantled and reconstructed.
      “The building had deteriorated over time and the structural integrity had been compromised in some areas,” said Aedes marketing manager Monica Hanlo.
      “The interiors had to be carefully renovated and restructured, with beams and stones disassembled, inspected and either reused or replaced.”
      The bedrooms are finished in a moody colour paletteWhere timber could no longer serve a structural function, it was converted into floorboards alongside reclaimed wood sourced from old church pews and demolished timber houses from Austria.
      This wood was smoked for 18 hours to create a rich colour that permeates the timber rather than sitting on top like a stain, which would wear down over time and need re-upping.
      “Normally, they do not smoke it that long,” explained Buro Belén co-founder Lenneke Langenhuijsen. “Now it will patina super beautifully because all throughout, it became this really dark wood.”
      “It was important to us to make well-based decisions, maybe invest a bit more but it’s a long-lasting product that ages with the hotel and makes it even nicer over time.”

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      De Durgerdam marks the first time that Buro Belén has applied its material research approach to an entire hotel interior.
      “We did a lot of research so that the hotel also feels very grounded in what it once was, in its place,” Langenhuijsen said. “And if you look at the Zuiderzee, it was a very important part of the Netherlands, all the villages around made their living from it.”
      Layered throughout the hotel’s interior are references to this seafaring history, delivered via an eclectic mix of new, vintage and bespoke elements created by Buro Belén.
      A rusty red colour was used to highlight the building’s beamsIn the ground-floor restaurant De Mark, framed photos provide a glimpse of the inn’s evolution over the years.
      A shaggy curtain frames the lounge area near the entrance, made from traditional flax rope and raw flax fibres that were once used by local fishermen to make their nets.
      Weather permitting, patrons can dine outside on the jetty atop lake IJmeer or sit at a long sharing table that forms the centrepiece of the restaurant.
      The same colour dominates the guest bathroomsOverhead, Buro Belén suspended Ingo Maurer’s chandelier Lacrime del Pescatore – or “fisherman’s tears” – made of sparkling crystals that droop from a nylon net.
      Its name, according to Langenhuijsen, acts as a subtle reference to the plight of the local fishers, who lost their livelihoods as the village was cut off from the sea.
      Upstairs, the inn accommodates three suites and one room, accessed via the building’s untouched original staircase, which still shows the deep grooves that were worn into the wood by thousands of shoes over the centuries.
      Ten of the hotel’s 14 rooms are housed in a garden annexe added in 2006De Durgerdam’s remaining 10 rooms are housed in a garden annexe that was added to the building in 2006. All share a moody colour palette that was drawn from the craft and building traditions of the Zuiderzee.
      A rusty red colour – reminiscent of sails treated with tree-bark tannins to prevent rot – was used to highlight key architectural features like the building’s timber beams and the monochrome bathrooms.
      Similarly, the inside of the bedrooms’ Shaker-style built-in wardrobes was painted in a sky blue colour that nods to a traditional paint made from buttermilk, chalk and a particular blue pigment, historically used by locals across cupboards and box beds to repel insects.
      The hotel’s heat pumps are hidden in tiny gabled outbuildingsEven though construction is complete, Aedes is still working on reducing the hotel’s operational footprint, with the aim of getting 80 per cent of the way towards being zero waste by the end of next year.
      The company is also looking into a reliable way of offsetting the building’s whole-life carbon emissions via a reforestation scheme but has so far struggled to find a reliable company that can guarantee measurable, traceable carbon removals.
      “We’re not fans of offsetting, because we think we have to make sure we don’t create emissions,” Mouwensaid. “But it’s not possible yet.”
      Aedes has previously converted Amsterdam’s art deco Bungehuis building into a Soho House members’ club.
      The photography is by Chantal Arnts and Studio Unfolded.

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      Linda Bergroth designs “user-centric” Cover Story paint shop in Amsterdam

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      Interior designer Linda Bergroth has added colourful beams to the Amsterdam concept store for plastic-free paint brand Cover Story, which was designed to streamline the redecorating process for shoppers.

      The “paint studio” is the second iteration of Cover Story outlets designed by Bergroth, who also created the interiors for the Finnish brand’s flagship Helsinki store.
      The Cover Story shop in Amsterdam features oversized colourful beamsShortlisted in the small retail interiors category of this year’s Dezeen Awards, the paint shop features oversized colourful beams. These were informed by cranes in the port city, as well as the decorative vignettes that top many of Amsterdam buildings’ facades, according to the brand.
      “The design playfully explores the use of colour, incorporating three-dimensionality through roof bars and considering how light interacts with colour to influence perception,” said Cover Story.
      Linda Bergroth designed the interiorFollowing a similar format to the Helsinki outlet, the Amsterdam shop also serves as a showroom, office and events space, despite its small size.

      A large colour chart made from hand-painted swatches in 47 different shades, designed to make choosing colours easier for customers, was attached to the wall.
      Colourfully painted blocks and plinths were incorporated to show how light responds to each Cover Story shadeChunky painted plinths were positioned in the shop window, as well as smaller colourful blocks on a central silvery table, to emphasise the different ways in which light and shadow respond to various paint options.
      Cover Story explained that Bergroth chose to highlight the old building’s “unique characteristics”, rather than introduce new furniture, including its sloping walls and the metal supports that adorn its structural pillars.

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      “Despite the significant influence that wall colour holds in shaping the atmosphere of a room and influencing interior design, paint is often perceived merely as a renovation accessory,” said the brand.
      “Cover Story’s mission is to position paint as a design product, which is why the Amsterdam paint studio is strategically located on a bustling shopping street alongside other concept stores where interior design products are sold,” it added.
      “Every aspect is thoughtfully crafted to promote a sustainable and user-centric experience.”
      The beams were informed by Amsterdam’s architectureFounded in 2020 by Anssi Jokinen and Tommi Saarnio, the brand produces 100 per cent plastic-free paint, which is also odourless.
      Finnish designer Bergroth has completed a number of colour-infused projects including Durat’s Helsinki showroom and a blue pop-up restaurant in New York built from recycled food packaging.
      The photography is by Paavo Lehtonen. 

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      D/Dock creates immersive exhibition space inside 19th-century Amsterdam gasworks

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      Creative studio D/Dock has transformed a hall inside Amserdam’s former Westergasfabriek gasworks into Fabrique des Lumières – billed as the largest immersive art centre in the Netherlands.

      Commissioned by Parisian company Culturespaces, D/Dock’s design and build team transformed the double-height 3,800-square-metre hall into an exhibition space where bright, colourful artworks are projected across the floor and walls.
      D/Dock transformed a gasworks hall into an immersive exhibition spaceThe space can be adapted through the use of movable seating and adjustable sound and light systems to suit the needs of various exhibitions on everything from space travel to the work of architect Antoni Gaudí.
      “[The space] serves as a versatile canvas set against an industrial backdrop, where over 100 projectors and speakers transform the venue into dynamic worlds, from a lively jungle to an interstellar journey or an evocative art gallery, offering a spectrum of cultural and sensory experiences adaptable to various exhibitions,” managing director of D/Dock Sven Butteling told Dezeen.
      The 17-metre-tall exhibition space has a viewing platform and moveable seatingTo achieve a continuous space suitable for light projections, any openings of the 1885 building were closed up with cladding and painted to blend in with the existing brick interior.

      Taking advantage of the building’s height and scale, an internal staircase wraps around the rear facade and leads to a raised platform providing views of the main space.
      Newly built elements echo the building’s industrial heritageTwo newly built pavilions provide more enclosed immersive experiences within the main exhibition space while also operating as projection surfaces in the main hall.
      Among them is the mirror pavilion, which D/Dock clad in mirrored panels and shiny flooring tiles to create “an infinite projection space”.

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      During construction, the building’s interior was carefully restored to maintain its industrial character, with the addition of newly built and digital elements creating a contemporary arts centre that blends the old and new.
      The addition of lightweight insulation on the roof and windows, as well as acoustic and fire-rated doors, helped to enhance the energy performance of the hall.
      Pavilions provide enclosed immersive spaces for visitorsD/Dock is a creative studio of architects, artists, designers and engineers based in Amsterdam.
      Fabrique des Lumières has been shortlisted in the architectural lighting design category of the Dezeen Awards 2023. Also in the running is the glowing facade that ArandaLasch created for a Dior store outside of Doha, Qatar.
      The photography is by Ossip van Duivenbode, Marijn van Laerhoven and Eric Spiller.

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      Barde vanVoltt draws on Japanese zen gardens for Calico Club interior

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      Dutch studio Barde vanVoltt has used rippled mirrored glass, boulders and pebbles to create the interior of Calico Club, a retail store located in a century-old farmhouse in the Netherlands.

      The studio aimed to combine Dutch heritage with Japanese tradition to create an “unexpected” but never overwhelming interior for the store, which is located in the village of Nistelrode.
      Pebbles decorate the floor in Calico Club”The main objective was to pay respect to the monumental 100-year-old farmhouse that Calico Club moved into,” Barde vanVoltt co-founder Valérie Boerma told Dezeen.
      “The challenge was to find ways to add materials we could remove easily to keep the original state of the construction as it was,” she added.
      Barde vanVoltt added plants to the interiorBoerma and her co-founder Bart van Seggelen added several organic details to the space, which has been divided into different sections.

      “The floor plan is shaped like a Japanese zen garden and its traditional elements of rock, water, and plants have been interpreted in more modern and abstract ways,” Seggelen explained.
      Boulders are scattered throughout the spaceOn polished concrete flooring, the studio placed whitewashed boulders that are used as retail displays and created elevated pebble islands above which garments are hung.
      Barde vanVoltt also designed matching islands made from walnut wood. The same warm wood is also used for the fitting rooms, cabinets and counters.
      Walnut wood is used for the counters inside the storeMateriality is an important aspect of the project, with rippled mirrored glass added in a nod to the water features that are often included in zen gardens.
      “Rippled mirrored glass and silver colour was to create contrast and depth,” Boerma said.

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      “The rippled glass keeps changing from wherever you look at it, this added an extra layer to the space, much like water, that is always changing,” she added.
      The aim was for the interior to “nourish creative flow, harmony and support it with a screen-free store policy to create calm in an unpredictable world,” the studio said.
      A large tree adds a touch of nature at the back of the storeAt the back of the store, a tree sits inside a round glass bench behind a metal wall divider.
      “Encased in a circular glass bench, the tree and the fashion collection opposite is given its moment thanks to a sheet of curved, rolled metal to separate it from the fitting rooms,” Seggelen said.
      “And at the front of the store, customers are shown the best of the collection with floating glass display cylinders filled with hay.”
      Calico Club is located in a red-brick former farmhouseThe pared-back designs and shiny materials inside the store contrast against its exterior, a rustic red-brick farmhouse.
      “With every project we do, we feel the responsibility to search for high quality, natural materials that are produced in a sustainable way,” Boerma said.
      “These materials and heritage come with earthy tones and it suited well with our Japanese reference,” Seggelen added.
      Rippled glass references the water in zen gardensCalico Club has been shortlisted in the retail interior (large) category of Dezeen Awards 2023.
      Previous projects by Barde vanVoltt include a former garage in Amsterdam that was transformed into a family home.
      Other recent projects in the Netherlands include an underground house and a wood-lined home in Zwaag.

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      Customers exchange urine for soap at Het Nieuwe Instituut pop-up shop

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      Cultural centre Het Nieuwe Instituut is rethinking the archetypal museum shop with a pop-up at Dutch Design Week, designed to encourage more ethical, resource-conscious consumption.

      Instead of offering a straightforward exchange of wares for money, New Store 1.0 gives patrons the opportunity to trade their urine for a piece of Piss Soap and encourages them to place their phones on specially designed fixtures to provide lighting for the venue once the sun goes down.
      Het Nieuwe Instituut has launched its debut pop-up shop at Dutch Design WeekTaking over Residency for the People – a hybrid restaurant and artist residency in Eindhoven – the pop-up also serves up two different versions of the same seabass dish, one made using wild locally caught fish and the other using fish that was industrially farmed and imported.
      The pop-up is the first of two trial runs for the New Store, aimed at helping Rotterdam’s Nieuwe Instituut work out how to design its own museum shop to prioritise positive social and environmental impact over mere financial gain.
      Arthur Guilleminot’s Piss Soap is among the projects on offerIn collaboration with the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) and research consultancy The Seeking State, the second trial will take place at next year’s Milan design week, with the aim to open the first dedicated shop in the museum’s Rotterdam location in 2025.

      “It all started out with the idea that we don’t have a museum shop per se,” Nieuwe Instituut’s programme manager Nadia Troeman told Dezeen. “A museum shop, as we know, has books and trinkets and gadgets. And it’s not really doing well for the planet or the environment.”
      “So we were like, how can we make the act of consuming better? How can we consume differently to help not just ourselves but the environment as well?”
      Visitors are invited to donate their urine via a poster in the toilet. Photo by Jennifer HahnFor the Dutch Design Week (DDW) pop-up, Nieuwe Instituut found the three featured projects by Dutch designers Arthur Guilleminot, Brogen Berwick and Arnout Meijer via an open call.
      The aim was to help the designers trial their ideas for how the exchange of goods could be less extractive and transactional in a real-world scenario.
      This can then be placed on a shelf outside the bathroom. Photo by Tracy Metz”The project is part of a broader institutional agenda of ours to become more of a testing ground,” explained the museum’s director Aric Chen. “It’s part of rethinking the role of cultural institutions as being places that can do more than host debates, discussions and presentations.”
      “So our aim is to take some of these projects that try to think about how we can do less damage, take them out of the graduation shows, take them out of the museum galleries, take them out of the biennales and put them into the real world, with real consumers, audiences and real people to see what we can learn from it,” he continued.

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      Guilleminot used the opportunity to expand his ongoing Piss Soap project, with a poster in the venue’s toilet inviting visitors to donate their pee by relieving themselves into designated cups and discreetly placing them on a newly added shelf outside the bathroom window.
      This can then be exchanged for a piece of soap, made using urine donated by previous participants and other waste materials from human activities such as used cooking oil.
      The soap takes three months to cure and is entirely odourless, helping to break up dirt and grease thanks to the urine’s high ammonia content.
      Those who are eating at the New Store can choose between two kinds of fishThe aim of the project is to find a new application for an underutilised waste material and engage people in a kind of circular urine economy.
      “The idea was to revive the ancient tradition of using pee to make soap, which was done for many centuries, including in ancient Rome,” said Guilleminot.
      “Could I make a modern product using this ingredient and, in the meantime, also change our feelings of disgust about our golden organic liquid?”
      The shop’s interactive lighting fixtures were designed by Arnout MeijerThose having dinner at the New Store can choose between two iterations of the same fish dish.
      The first uses wild seabass that was caught locally by fishers Jan and Barbara Geertsema-Rodenburg in Lauwersoog while the other was farmed in Turkey and imported by seafood market G&B Yerseke.
      Devised by Berwick, who is a design researcher and “occasional fisherwoman”, the project challenges diners to ask themselves whether they are willing to pay the higher price associated with locally caught fish in exchange for its environmental benefits.
      “With the fish, they get a receipt of transparency,” Troeman added. “And one is obviously longer than the other.”
      The shop is open until 29 OctoberDiners were also asked to provide their own illumination as the sun goes down, in a bid to make them aware of our overconsumption of energy and the adverse effects our light pollution has on the natural rhythms of other animals.
      For this purpose, Meijer designed two wall-mounted fixtures inside the New Store that have no internal light source and are simply composed of discarded glass shards topped with wooden shelves made from old beams.
      If they require more light, guests have to place their phone on this ledge with the flashlight on, funnelling light onto the glass shard through a narrow slit in the wood.
      It takes over Eindhoven’s artists’ residency and restaurant Residency for the PeopleThis reflects and refracts light around the space while revealing various crescent moon shapes engraved into the glass in a nod to the circadian rhythm.
      “It’s really about our dependence on the constant supply of energy,” Troeman said. “Can we embrace the dark and hence be more environmentally friendly? It has benefits for everyone and everything.”
      Exploring more circular forms of exchange was also on the agenda at last year’s Dutch Design Week, when designer Fides Lapidaire encouraged visitors to trade their own poo for “shit sandwiches” topped with vegetables that were fertilised with human waste.
      The photography is by Jeph Francissen unless otherwise stated.
      Dutch Design Week 2023 is taking over Eindhoven from 21 to 29 October. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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      DAB Studio lines kitchen of Dutch home with oak and Afromosia wood

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      Dutch interior design practice DAB Studio has transformed the kitchen of a family home in Zwaag, the Netherlands, by covering the floors and ceiling in one type of wood and the walls and cabinets in another.

      DAB Studio aimed to create a “calm yet soulful” interior with an earthy colour palette made up of tan and neutral shades.
      Quarter-sawn Afromosia wood lines the walls and kitchen unitsThe floors and ceiling were covered in hand-scraped oak with a smoked and black-oiled finish, laid in a pattern of side-by-side plank pairs.
      Afromosia wood, a tropical hardwood native to west Africa, was applied to the walls and cabinets. The wood was quarter sawn to create a decorative grain pattern and add a sense of playfulness to the interior.
      Oak planks were laid in side-by-side pairs on the floors and ceilingDAB Studio co-founders, Lotte and Dennis Bruns, designed the interior to be a space that would balance “feminine and masculine elements” and reflect both of the owners’ design tastes.

      According to the duo, the repeating wood choices for the different surfaces give the space a sense of completeness.
      Marble worktops extend down the sides of the kitchen units”Per the client’s request, we wanted to merge the feminine and masculine vision of their new home, balancing each other out in one curated space,” the co-founders told Dezeen.
      “This allowed us to create unique areas in line with our client’s habits and interests while imbuing the space with a sense of spaciousness and lightness.”
      “In order to merge all elements of the design, it felt important to prioritise the theme of consistency,” the duo added.
      “For that particular reason, the wood of the floor is repeated on the ceiling, and the wood used for cabinetry is continued into the walls of the room.”

      Julia van Beuningen adds spiral stair in Dutch barn conversion

      The centrepiece of the kitchen is the island, which features Afromosia wood cabinet doors and a waterfall countertop made from Arebescato Orobico marble.
      Wood cabinets along one kitchen wall were also topped with a marble worktop, which extends down one side to frame the unit.
      The studio balanced “masculine and feminine” elements in the interiorDAB Studio added a dining nook below a window, designed to be a space flooded with natural light where the family can gather.
      Seating with rounded corners wraps the three walls of the nook. The seating base was covered in the same wood as the interior walls, while the seat and backrest are covered in plush upholstery.
      The quarter-sawn Afromosia wood creates a decorative grainAt the centre of the nook, a rectangular table with two blocky legs made from Arebescato Orobico marble contrasts the rounded seating.
      “The dining nook is where the family can spend time together, welcome new conversations, and create core memories,” said Lotte and Dennis Bruns.
      “The asymmetrical built-in banquette seating feels inviting with its round edges, and adds a dynamic feel to the space.”
      The dining nook sits below a windowDecorative items and free-standing furniture were introduced to the interior to add more rounded elements, including a Wiggle Chair by Frank Gehry.
      Elsewhere in the Netherlands, Francois Verhoeven Architects has created a bungalow clad in vertical timber slats and Julia van Beuningen added a plywood staircase to a barn conversion.
      The photography is by Daniëlle Siobhán.

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