The House Stenger is a contemporary Dutch residential building was designed by architects Kirsten Gabriels and James Webb, Gabriëls Webb Architecture and Design. Located on IJburg, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the House Stenger is private residence was designed for individual client needs. A site with a south facing view to a canal on the Grote Rietland of IJburg provided a unique opportunity for a family to live in a free-standing villa within 20 minutes of central Amsterdam. The family of four, a score composer and a business scenario writer with 2 teenage children required a house that provided opportunities to live both together and independently.

The section of the house clearly describes the programme with children on the lowered level, parents on the upper, and the ground floor acting as the communal, family and social area (and also bufferzone).

Similar to a typical Amsterdam canal house the ground floor is raised increasing privacy from the street. The raised ground floor allows clear views to the canal at the rear and accommodates the basement below. This visual connection to the canal is maintained at all times – through the open stairs to the upper level and the absence of any doors dividing the ground floor area. The smaller living area of the ground floor steps down to the kitchen/dining area opening both horizontally and vertically in scale. The lower space opens to the outside terrace continuing the procession to the garden and canal.

The children’s lower level (complete with kitchenette and bathroom) is accessed from the street via external stairs and becomes an independent zone from the main house. The dividing wall between the bedrooms is non load-bearing and in the eventuality of the children leaving the family home the basement could be used and rented as a separate studio apartment.

In the upper level the parents functions of study, bathing and sleeping are ordered from street to canal side. From the bathroom views across the canal are possible, and the bedroom and bathroom unite as one space with a continous floor surface.

The house is transparent from the street to the canal with the main front and back facades of full height glazing. All walls perpendicular to the street are solid timber clad surfaces. A clear demarcation of the house‘s internal levels are revealed in the facade with white bands. Horizontally laid western red cedar boards further striate the volume. The entrance facade consists of a large full height glass door and an art piece by Amsterdam artist Yvonne Kroese. The lasercut steel panel features creatures found on and around IJburg and houses the letter box and other entrance hardware.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 9:46 am and is filed under Home Design. Tags: Amsterdam, Amsterdam canal, artist, contemporary, contemporary building, Contemporary Homes, contemporary residence, entrance hardware, Gabriëls Webb Architecture, House Stenger in Netherlands, James Webb, Kirsten Gabriels, lasercut steel panel, Netherlands, score composer and a business scenario writer, The Netherlands, Yvonne Kroese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.