VILLA 4.0 - Dick Van Gameren Architecten

A simple 1967 bungalow on a hexagonal groundplan had been modified and enlarged through the years. This had made the house increasingly inward-looking. The expanding wings were steadily enclosing the heart of the house with the hall and living quarters, and direct contact between the house and the surrounding garden was largely lost.

The original detailing and material form were consistently adhered to during all previous interventions, resulting in a house thoroughly outmoded and of a poor technical quality. The principle guiding our new intervention has been to create a house that is sustainable and to reinstate the lost relationship between the house and the landscape.

First step was to preserve as much as possible the existing house, limiting both the amount of waste and of new materials. Outer walls and roofs were modernized by adding insulation and replacing all windows. The central section walls were removed to create a new spatial heart for the house; a living hall giving access to all other parts of the house. The physical bond between house and landscape has been consolidated by an all-glass pavilion attached to the living hall reaching out to the brook. The large skylights of the hall turn the original house’s plan into a three dimensional sculptural shape.

They are also an essential part of the carefully designed system of natural ventilation, the base for the energy concept keeping it comfortable with a minimal energy usage. A floor heating/cooling system is fed by a thermal storage unit. Extra heat sources in winter are a large woodstove in the kitchen and the new glass pavilion that accumulates warmth on sunny days. A solar heat collector on the roof provides the warm water. Further savings of energy are realized by using only LED lighting. All waste water is purified and reused.