We started the design of a villa onto a narrow, 19 meters long strap of land on the edge of the village of Rijnsaterwoude, in the middle of the ‘green heart’ of the most populated part of the Netherlands, the ‘Randstad’. The lot where the villa had to be constructed is a part of the dike of a canal which flows into the Brasermermeer (Brasemer lake).
The shape of the house resembles that of stretched cake batter which is poured into a baking tin. In layers, one unto the other, forwards and backwards, and vice versa.
In view of the lot, which is as narrow as it is long, the spaces of this house are organized in a linear fashion, starting with the relatively public rooms and ending with the most private rooms. The villa reaches a total length of 93 meters if you would roll it out and can be reached by a lane of 19 meters long. The sequence of rooms is folded four times, to create a house four floors high.
Through the sequence of rooms one can walk through the house from the driveway to the master bedroom entirely. From this bedroom leads a short cut or escape route. This connection leads via a hidden staircase to the children’s room and through outside spaces and the hind path back to the street. Within this ‘fourfold folded form’ a route with a total length of 171 meters ensues in the shape of a loop. On some strategic places lateral connections are being added.
Through the materialization of the front walls in rough stucco the resistance of country life is expressed. By addition of corroding metal scraps of aluminum, copper, and steel the villa is camouflaged in accordance with the three main themes of the polder: light air, green grass and brown soil. In view of the oblong shape of the villa compared to the adjacent structure the surfaces are added in a dazzle pattern. This pattern makes it difficult to perceive the exact contours of the building and seems to divide the mass.
Concept Design
House Rijnsaterwoude NL
Client: Fam Kerklaan / TECHXX
Construction advice: ABT Velp, Hans van Vliet
Graphic design facade: Arjan Groot, thecoverup/020
3D visuals: ARCHIWARE
House 596 M2, 1575 M3
Terrace 70 M2, garden 161 M2
drive, car parking, bike parking, storage, elevator, service zone, wine storage, sporting area, office, guest room
bathroom, wardrobe, toilet, service zone, main entrance hall, garden shortcut
dining room, children playroom – media room, kitchen, breakfast bar, patio, living room
3 junior bedrooms, wardrobe, bathroom, wardrobe, playroom shortcut, top view terrace, master bedroom