The Jacob van Lennepkade is one of the few canals in the Old-West part of Amsterdam. Its wide set up with trees, roads and houseboats on both sides of the canal makes it stand out in the neighborhood. Any new addition to this characteristic site needs special attention. The strategy to add a penthouse to an existing building within this delicate urban context was twofold. The added building layer almost doubles the floor area of the apartments it connects to but sets back more than one and a half meters to make space for a terrace overlooking the canal. This makes the penthouse less visible from the street level. Since this also creates more privacy for the clients big sliding windows were added to the front of the addition that makes for great views through the trees and over the rooftops. Finally the black aluminum cladding was chosen to relate the penthouse to the black shingle roofs that characterizes the houses opposite the canal. Structurally the new addition was a challenge. The existing building was built in the seventies and typically for that time built as light as possible which meant that the roof couldn’t bear more than itself and some occasional rain. A hole was made using carbon reinforcement and the new building layer consists of a steel framework that spans from bearing wall to bearing wall.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2019
Client Private
Contractor WJ-projects