loft amsterdam

client: familie Wiersma Munnik
location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
realisation: 2001
i.c.w. Heleen van Heel, heeldebever, enterprice for architectural design, Amsterdam
photography: Ximena Davalos, Rotterdam
pdf, publication: de achitect, mei 2005

This apartment is located in a former warehouse on the Nieuwendammerdijk in Amsterdam-Noord that was converted into casco lofts in 1995. In 2000, the client wanted to make his loft of 165 square meters as empty as possible, in which only the installation shaft was a permanent feature. Nevertheless, the requirements listed a number of permanent spaces, including a bedroom, a children's bedroom, a study/guest room, two bathrooms, an extra toilet for visitors, a kitchen, and a separate laundry room.

The authentic wooden column construction with a relatively low beam layer on it largely determined the positioning and height of the new layout. It resulted in the design of a compact "box", in which several program components including a corridor system are placed. Characteristic of this design is that each room has at least two passageways, the two bedrooms even have three, so that in the open state the different rooms become one.

The outside of the "box" is made of high-gloss white-lacquered MDF, in which doors are made in the same plane as the walls. In the ‘box’ there is a suspended ceiling in which the electricity provisions are included and the floor is raised by 10 cm in connection with the other pipework. The interior spaces, walls, floor, and ceiling, are finished with a yellow waterproof plastic layer.