Split View in Hout, The Netherlands by U Architects

Article source: U Architects

This  family which wanted to build this house was motivated by the change of their living situation and wanted to express this also in their new house. The two children of this family wanted to have their own living surrounding but also wanted to be in close contact with the parents. On the other hand the parents wanted to have more private zones in the new house but also be in close contact with their children.

Every floor of the house had to have an overview of the surrounding. In a certain way  the new house is a translation of the family situation which is undergoing a transformation like many other families in the Netherlands.

West and south facade

• Architects: U Architects
• Project: Split View
• Location: Voorste Akkerweg 2, Mierlo – Hout, The Netherlands
• Delivered:  February 2012
• Building costs: 299.000 euro  inclusive VAT
• Gross floor area:  250 m2
• Type: One freestanding family house
• Contractor: Jansen&Vis
• Advisor construction: Vervest Constructief
• Advisor HVAC: Volantis
• Architecture photographer: Daan Dijkmeijer
• Client : Family van Renterghem, which made this project financially possible.
• Founders and owners of UArchitects: Misak Terzibasiyan & Emile van Vugt

West facade

The family wanted a house which is flooded with light, which is experienced each season in a different way and they wanted to experience the surrounding from different locations in the house. From the outside this house gives a readable split level. A glimpse  of the various  functions of the house can been seen at different corners from outside and inside the house. For the term “split view” we could also use the term  split mind, because the memory of the users of an average traditional  house is  at its best in traditional closed spaces  (book of Joshua Foer).

Underpart staircase

This theme  mentioned in the book  of Joshua Foer is as followed:

If the person leaves the space where he has learned or read, the  thought is easily forgotten by leaving the closed space and when the person returns to the same space,  then this person remembers again the thought in question.

Our mind/memory is categorized in rooms/spaces.

Staircase

This house will be an interesting thought and behaviour experiment because here are various crossover and open connections between different spaces. We question ourselves which effect this split view house will have on the mind and the remembering of facts and thoughts of the users of this house and will it result in a split mind/memory which is a modern variant is of our modern time of

remembering and acting in this rapidly changing and liquid society.

Will the task of remembering and acting be influenced by the see- through and open connections in this split view house ?

The interior of this house and the use is readable at the outside of the house and each side  of the house is reacting in his own peculiar way, one time closed and the other time open, sometimes friendly and the other time hard-minded, sometimes unanswered and the other time it lights up and shows the inside.

South west corner

Materialisation:

The staircase is made of wood (Yellow Poplar) and connects the

several  levels of the house. The house stands at the cross point of two roads. We proposed to lift  the house up from their surrounding and to mark the different floors levels with steel beams which are also a reference to the road protection beams at the side to the roads in the Netherlands.  The other materials are the two colours bricks (lxbxh= 240x90x40 mm) mm  strong horizontal deep lying cement and vertical wood  elements with different size (Plato wood: special modified wood), and the steel beams are galvanized and marks the

beginning of the split in the house.The bricks are specially made in the colour with certain amount clay. We try to find a balance in the  facades and we try to express the split view theme at the outside.

Night view

Living room & kitchen

Ground floor looking up staircase

Entrance

Detail front side

Corner detail south west facade

Tags: Hout, The Netherlands

Category: House

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