Hidden inside a building block in the city centre of Amsterdam is this old factory building where ones gears were made. While maintaining the unique atmosphere, the ‘Tandwielenfabriek’ has been transformed into lofts. This house has its own entrance connected to a quiet street inside the city block. Where the sliding doors used to be, large sliding gates are made of perforated steel. Behind the gate is a hidden loggia, which serves as a private front gardens, where bicycles can be parked. Once inside, the height of the room and the abundant daylight that comes in through the skylights is striking. You enter into an island of calm within the busy center of Amsterdam. The introverted character is maintained by making a light weight mezzanine which can be reached by an elegant bare steel spiral stair. The mezzanine itself is kept loose from two walls to let light reach the lower level, once through walkable glass and once by cabinets where sunlight can reach behind. There is another big skylight in a space that can be reached through a stair opposite the room with the mezzazine. Once upstairs there is kids room made with cabinets and glass in steel above on your right and a new bathroom on your left. The bath is placed underneath the lowest part of the roof light and provides a magnifisent view towards the sky.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2021
Client Private
Contractor Bouw Combinatie Eemnes NV
This community building designed together with Studio Appelo is part of a new landscape hotel called ‘The Unbound’ in the rural area just outside of Amsterdam. The estate is set up with public gardens, restaurant and bar, wellness and a bunch of hotel cabins scattered throughout the typically Dutch landscape. De Vuurplaats translates to ‘the fireplace’ and serves as a beacon lying at the end of a bridge that you walk on after checking in. The building itself stands firmly in the midst of a field of tiny houses and functions as a communal space for diner, party or relaxation. Big sliding doors and screens can be adjusted for the different spatial needs required. Its structure combines the old building technique of trusses in combination with the new technique of prefabrication of walls and roof elements. Its building time, costs and carbon footprint are reduced as a result and the use of wood and brick as the main materials makes the whole blend in with nature.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2020
Client Studio Appelo / Steengoed BV
Contractor Prefabline
The Don Bosco neighbourhood in the East of Amsterdam where this new apartment building is situated consists of a typical mix of nineteen-century row houses and orthogonally strips of post war housing. This apartment building, designed together with Studio Appelo, is situated at a new square that will become a focal point of the renewed area. Although the question from the municipality was to relate the new building to the nineteen century housing typology with their base, middle part and a visible angled roofs, the 20 new apartments are designed to also honour their own typology. The five rows of French balconies with the dormer windows on top makes the viewer count several houses making them fit into their nineteen century urban context. Meanwhile the cantilevered planter on the front facade marks the entrance to the Alan Turing Apartments. Being it social housing, a sense of togetherness and ownership of the building is emphasized by a rich detailing of the facade and interior. One should feel home already when entering the stairwell reaching up to the individual dwellings. Balconies on the back of the facade are situated along the gallery and invite the inhabitants to socialize as much as wanted. Finally a rhythm of vertical and horizontal masonry piers bind together the front, rear and sides of the building as well as the people living there.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2023
Client Studio Appelo / Ymere
Contractor HSB Bouw B.V.
This house is located in a former commercial building from 1921. Characteristic are the high ceilings of more than 5 meters and the large industrial windows that had to provide sufficient daylight on the work floor. The building is divided into apartments, with living rooms in the double-height spaces. An extra bedroom has been added within the existing building volume by placing a mezzanine that is 'floating' and is suspended from the existing construction. This extra room of 16.5 m2 can be reached via a landing which protrudes into the living room. The glass balustrade and the fact that the landing is designed with oversize make it part of the living space. The landing overlooks the dining and sitting area and, with its 11 m2, can also be used as a study and/or playroom in addition to being a hallway. The multi-purpose room is connected to the ground floor by a wide staircase finished with oak wood. The stairs starts in the hall in line with the front door where the ceiling is also double high and is equipped with a beautiful hanging lamp to emphasize the entrance. Under the stairs in the hall, a storage room, a toilet and a cloakroom are hidden in a wooden slatted wall. The glass pivot door at the end of the wall in turn connects the hall with the living room and kitchen. The result is a design in which all spaces are connected in a playful way, where great moments can take place but also the seclusion can be sought in smaller intimate spaces and all moments in between.
Location Netherlands
Year 2022
Client Private
Contractor Celissen Bouw
This dike house in the northern part of Amsterdam connects on an urban level with the spatial system specific to that place. We were inspired by old photos of the area, in which the village character with small-scale activities in the form of wooden barns was appealing. We saw a solution in how to make the extension subordinate to the house located on the Landsmeerderdijk. The material and detailing are reminiscent of a simple barn where the construction can be clearly read in horizontal and vertical lines. By also extending the vertical grid into the roof surface, components such as light strips and solar panels can be processed. In the side walls, the horizontal lines follow existing elements in the brick dike house, creating a soft transition between old and new. These lines continue in the rear facade and determine the position of the windows. Inside we designed a staircase that connects the existinging ground floor with the lower level of the backyard and another floor inbetween the ground and first floor where the bathroom and master bedroom is located. The S-shaped open staircase moves its users upward in the direction of the gabled roof making it an eye catching element inside the house. The interior will be done by studio appelo.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2023
Client Private
This house is part of a new developement area in the West borough of Amsterdam called Houthavens, literally meaning “lumber port” referring to its old purpose. Where there used to be transhipment and storage of lumber nowadays the main function of this area is residential. Jan and Jessica purchased this new-built property on the growth so the main focus in this 200 m2 family house was to create a home with various intimate places and qualities. To emphasize these different qualities every function in the house has its own color palette which are visible from the room that you are in aswell as from the room next to it. By doing this all rooms on the four different floors are always connected and moving through them becomes an exiting and smooth motion. When entering the room you are supposed to be at the fine detailling and rich materialization of every piece of furniture at its turn provides focus and encourages use of its function.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2019
Client Private
Contractor Eskabé B.V.
This house is situated at the southern part of the Akkerlanen urban plan in Waalwijk. The eastern and northern plot boundaries are shared with neighbors. A public green structure is located to the west and on the south side lies the Vijverlaan with a grazing meadow and a lake across. The garden of this plot is located on the north. To make optimal use of the garden, a two storey terraced volume has been proposed that allows the sun to enter the greenery at the back of the house. At the beginning of the day the sun will shine in the ‘morning garden’ and at the end of the day in the ‘evening garden’. At those parts of the day the kitchen will be activated by the sunlight entering the house. A large window on the 2nd floor is facing south which the sun will hit around noon. The proposed canopy creates a loggia providing great views while at the same time keeping the sun out during summer. In winter, when the sun is lower, the sun will enter the house through this window and passively warm up the house.
Location Waalwijk
Client Private
Contractor -
Studioninedots was commissioned to design this large scale housing project consisting of 590 student houses and 282 apartments for young professionals. My role was that of the Project Architect. The strategy in designing something this big works on three levels. There are two towers that work on the scale of the city. The tallest one points towards the main street, the Cornelis Lelylaan. The other tower points towards the secundary street. Together they work as a landmark and put the train- metro- en busstation Lelylaan on the map. The volume is devided in six smaller volumes surrounding a courtyard to break down the scale. Finally the individual volumes have a pattern in them to break down the scale even more.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2017
Client Studioninedots / IC
Contractor Smit’s Bouwbedrijf BV
For a middle-aged couple I was commissioned to design an extension which would facilitate their needs through life. At the moment they want to travel the world with a camper van. They might sell the house in the future or they might stay there for the rest of their lives. The extension to their original house facilitates these choices in life since it can be put in different configurations. The standard layout consists of an enlargement of the living room which through its large windows connects the interior to their beloved garden. A hallway which shows as a separate volume connects the living room to a garage with a work shed attached. In case the couple want to sell the house this garage and shed is designed to easily be transformed into a studio or little practice with a small bathroom. If the couple decides to stay and grow old here they can use the garage and shed as their bedroom so they don’t need to climb stairs in their old days.
Location Boxtel, Netherlands
Client Private
Contractor Aannemersbedrijf Henk Troeijen
This house is part of a catalogue of houses called WeBuildHomes which is set up by Dutch architecture firm Space & Matter. The concept is based on the fact that high class architecture is currently only available for the rich. Therefor architecture firms were asked to design a house based upon a generic base so that people would have thousands of unique designs to pick from. Studioninedots commissioned me to design one of them. The idea for the Vertical Garden House is that in a sequence of row houses which will be its context, the facade steps back on every floor. The setbacks make room for plants. Together they provide a pleasant break in the stringent rhythm of the street. On the inside of the house the windows reach the floor so that the plants are visible and will provide soothing shadows in the rooms.
Location Netherlands
Client Studioninedots
Contractor WeBuildHomes
The urban context of this apartment building at the Weespertrekvaart in Amsterdam is that of a housing block surrounded by individual lots which each their own design and use of materials. Instead of answering its surrounding with a similar exuberant design this house constitutes a counterweight because of its subdued but strong appearance. This design is based on two large adjacent openings that repeat over the floors. On the ground floor and the top floor this rhythm is interrupted and replaced by an opening double the size. This marks the entrance and the balcony. The repetition of pencil widths and horizontal facade elements provide a controlled image and strengthens the ground and top floor which are the exception to the rule. Since a large part of the entrance doors are hauled by a parking facility, this design aims at a spacious street-level porch which serves for access to the living area and also serves as the reception area of the ground floor and first floor office. This to achieve liveliness at ground level.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2019
Client Private
Contractor Bouwbedrijf Degewij BV
This structure designed together with Studio Vincent Architecture was part of Folly Art Norg 2024. During this one month festival everyone was welcome to walk a 1,5 hour route through the beautiful surroundings of Norg, Drenthe. Along the way visitors will encounter 20 foolish buildings designed and built by talented artists, architects and spirits alike. The assignment was to design and make a 'folly'; an unconventional building or structure, unsuitable for housing or other functions. And if there is no function, what material would you use? A new and unknown material, mycelium which is a network of fungal threads. Our structure consists of 69 panels made out of this new building material. The mycelium was grown on sawdust for a week, dried for another week and deactivated in the oven before hanging them up into this wooden structure made out of wooden poles, planks and sticks connected through pin and hole. The panels are put up high as a new material for visitors to discover and for the wind to play with.
Location Norg, Drenthe
Client Folly Art Norg
Contractor -
This house in the East of Amsterdam was originally built in 1925 and with its compact floor plan and tiny living room outdated for modern living. The back facade is demolished and an extension was added to elongate the living room. Another room was added next to the original bedroom with a walk through bathroom in between the two. At the end of the lot a studio and shed are added which leaves room for a perfectly square garden. The wooden cladding of the two facades are repeated on the fencing of the garden to emphasise its serving as a patio. From the studio as well as the living room large sliding doors can be opened towards the outdoor space so that on good days the patio is part of the total floorpan and the devision between indoor and outdoor space dissolves.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2018
Client Private
Contractor Hoekbouw
This house is situated West of Amsterdam on the North side of the Sloterplas which forms the centre of a western extension of the Dutch city of Amsterdam. Built in the 50’s and 60’s of the 20th century the urban idea here was to create housing with greenery all around as a so called garden city, which is in contrast to the old way of urban development recognizable by its closed building blocks surrounded by streets. The problem with the latter was the lack of sunshine especially on the ground and corner dwellings. About ten years ago this area was considered bad but recently the tables have turned. Trees and bushes have come to maturity and more and more houses are being sold to people who appreciate the outdoor feeling and the close proximity to the city centre. This house forms the end of a strip of houses and is adjacent to public green with trees and a little river. Some of the best views are on the side wall which was mostly closed. The renovation implied opening up this wall with holes in different sizes to frame some great views into the greenery. To make the house future-proof and extensions on the back and on top the house were added.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Year 2018
Client Private
Contractor WJ Projects
In this Space Encounters project for the new headquarters of Joolz my role was that of the Project Architect. Joolz is a fast-growing Dutch company that designs and manufactures push chairs. Their headquarters is situated in an old factory building in the north of Amsterdam. Three volumes make up the existing building. The ground floor is stripped from its interior walls providing one big open space. Three big internal gardens with exotic plants make a division between a working area and a more informal space for meeting and lunch. The gardens serve as lungs providing fresh and filtered air. Rainwater from the roof is used as nutrition for the plants. Also in between the plants meeting and lounge places are situated. The upper floor is connected to the ground floor through openings overlooking the main hall.
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Client Space Encounters/Joolz
Contractor Barten Groep
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
This neighborhood is a result of research about affordable and sustainable social housing and offers a solution for the housing shortage in the Netherlands. The project was commissioned by Studio Sluijzer and EcoCabins and will be realized on different vacant locations. Starting point for the design were modules that could be prefabricated and tranported to the building site using trucks. Furthermore the modules had to be energy neutral and made out of timber framing/cross laminated timber. I’ve designed a module that could fit a 50 square meter dwelling and one that could fit two 25 square meter studios. Those modules are then put together in five different configurations to form ensembles. Two of them are shown here. The ‘4-under-1 solar-roof’ consists of a retirement home, single family homes and student housing and is made selfsufficient by adding 56 solar panels on its roof. The other configuration is made of modules lined up in a row so that they aswell can share their sustainable devices.
Location The Netherlands
Year 2020
Client Studio Sluijzer / EcoCabins
Contractor -
