RIETEILAND HOUSE
URBAN ISLAND LIVING PROJECT: RIETEILAND HOUSE CLIENT: Hans van Heeswijk LOCATION: IJburg, Amsterdam PROJECT ARCHITECT: Hans van Heeswijk COMPLETION DATE: August 2011 GROSS AREA: 275sqm COST: Undisclosed
On this project Dutch architect Hans van Heeswijk was both the designer and client. This has led to a spacious and light-filled private-home full of special details. Van Heeswijk was keen not to settle for off-
the-peg solutions. Instead, he seized the opportunity to work to a higher level of ambition in terms of how to use energy, how to maximise the potential of technology, how to respond to the context, and how to stretch the limits of what is possible. The result is a real machine for living in. While the front of this waterside house, on
the recently developed island of IJburg near Amsterdam, is clad in perforated aluminium panels, the rear is entirely glazed, so that the occupiers can watch the sun set. Some of these panels are positioned behind windows and can be opened automatically to allow light to enter. The waterfront façade, by contrast, is completely open and orientated to the view. On the second floor, part of the volume is
omitted to create space for a screened roof terrace. Typical of Van Heeswijk’s designs is the application of 'timeless' materials such as glass, steel, concrete and wood. The sensory experience is largely
determined by the transparency achieved and a flowing spaciousness that extends from high to low and from big to small. Located in the centre of the plan is a core (the 'magic box') that rises the full three-storey height of the building and is wrapped in wenge timber for acoustic reasons. The core contains storage closets, a toilet on every floor, cables and a dumbwaiter. Openings in the floor slabs create double
height spaces in the large ground-floor dining area, a first-floor living area and second-floor master bedroom. Views become increasingly panoramic towards the top of the house and balustrades made of glass ensure unobstructed views from the balconies. The house has been designed to
accommodate the family’s way of living. When changing clothes in the bathroom, they throw the laundry into a tube that carries it down two floors to the washing machine. Once washed and ironed, the clothes are carried back upwards on a small lift. Van Heeswijk took the opportunity to design
almost everything specially for his home. From furniture, shelves, bathroom furniture, benches, cabinets, fireplace, long dining tables, a kitchen island with built-in dessert trolley to the door handles. The door and window fittings are now in the collection of Post & Eger, series 'Wave'. The house has been nominated for the
Amsterdam Architecture Prize 2012. The winner will be announced at the end of April.
Internally the house is spacious and filled with natural light.
26 | Architects Choice |
ArchitectNews.co.uk
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