Villa Hendrikx / 70F architecture

Location

The commission (September 2007) consisted of a detached house on a plot in residential area Overgooi in Almere, at the foot of the Gooimeer dike. The family wanted, except for transparency and privacy, a strong integration of the plot with the building as opposed to a block on a mound.

Description

The house is a two-story building with traditional planning, living on the ground floor and sleeping upstairs. The building is divided into three parts: a two-storey main entrance building facing the front garden, a patio and connecting hallway as an open area in between, and finally the living area in a one-story volume in the middle of the plot.

Facade

The house is clad in yellow-white blend brickwork with mahogany window frames.

Interiors

The first (two-story) block contains an office with business entrance and bathroom, utility room, storage room and sauna on the ground floor. On the first floor are the bedrooms, bath and shower rooms. The landing is so spacious, that besides the traffic space there is place for a cabinet wall, which maximizes the free space in the bedrooms, but also a large workbench. On this workbench, the three children do their homework and use their computers. This encourages social contact within the family, but also provides the necessary social supervision by the parents. None of the rooms in this volume are street-oriented, to emphasize privacy. The entrance to the house is in the second volume, the connecting hallway between the tall office/sleep volume and the low residential volume. It also houses the start of the stairs to the first floor, while more towards the living quarters there is a cloakroom. The third volume is divided into three parts. The dining/TV area is focused on the east side garden. The kitchen is built into two long volumes, separating the living room from the dining room. Above the kitchen is a glass roof. In these volumes there are also an indoor and an outdoor fireplace. The living room is facing the patio and the backyard, and has a partly covered terrace facing south.

Overall Impression

By dividing the various functions into multiple, interconnected blocks, the house becomes fully integrated with the plot. The phenomenal large glass panes, the visual lines of the interior design and the garden design by the Mien Ruys studio do the rest.