“-Re” House together with “-Re” Adapt are two series part of a project in which I review, refine and redesign residential projects available on the Dutch housing market. “-Re” House touches projects that have been completed after the year 2000 and could have been done more efficiently to begin with, while “-Re” Adapt looks at how to better adapt older residential architecture that was designed in a different cultural and historical context.
I obviously understand and appreciate the need to prioritize based on needs and availability of spaces. The Netherlands is a small country so the average size of the apartments is smaller than in many other countries. Makes perfect sense. What does not make sense however is making tiny itzy bitzy toilets to the point of bumping one’s head to the door*, while in the same time making tango dancing spaces as hallways. Hmmm. Nope.
Original layout:
• Completed: 2006
Surface: 114m²
External storage space: 6m²
• I am not sure why this was marketed as 3 bedrooms. It could be just a labeling mistake in the floor plan. The pictures of the listing definitely did not match the floor plan. That being said, the biggest issue that I had was the large hallway space mostly wasted when there was a definite lack in a proper living room space.
New layout:
• I used the former hallway space to house all the smaller functions and allow the kitchen to extend into an actual living room. I did feel that the space resulted was rather small and so I unsuccessfully tried to increase it while preserving the structural elements as well as the facade layout.
• I did manage to increase the living space by removing 1 window out from the master bedroom. The side effect of this modification is the fact that the door from the second bedroom is no longer in full sight of incoming traffic through the hallway and has much more privacy.
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* At the Douwe Egberts cafe in Eindhoven the toilets are incredibly small. The distance between the toilet seat and the door is just enough to fit one standing person. Try to bend forward while facing the door and your head will encounter the door. (That is if they have not renovated them since I last been there. Which I rather doubt.)