Villa Vaartjes, Almere (NL)

Biorealism

In Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House, a house can be experienced not only as a spatial continuum, but also as a sequence of smaller sub-houses arranged around a central patio. The house features an open plan in which the boundary between interior and exterior is minimized through the use of large glass walls. The design concept focuses on the relationship between architecture, nature, and human experience — an approach Neutra referred to as biorealism. Biorealism remains highly relevant in contemporary architecture focused on sustainability and well-being, where the relationship between people, buildings, and nature takes center stage.

Villa Vaartjes

The Vaartjes family wished for such a house: open yet intimate; sustainable and self-sufficient. This led to the design of a villa in Almere Oosterwold, composed of three interconnected building volumes conceived as miniature houses that together form a larger whole. The typology is based on a life-cycle approach in which the house is designed around the use and well-being of its inhabitants within a generic structural framework.

The approach is almost urbanistic in nature. Its fragmented composition also requires a different organization of the outdoor space and thereby enforces a more nature-inclusive approach: a shared natural environment in which private gardens cease to exist and all users actively participate in urban agriculture as well as in the use and care of the local vegetation.

The three parts of the house are positioned on a concrete platform, ensuring that archaeological remains from the Stone Age are preserved untouched beneath. On the southern side, a greenhouse for growing vegetables forms an integral part of the house. Roof overhangs provide shading, which can be further enhanced with sliding panel walls acting as sun screens. Newly planted trees contribute additional natural shading over time. The concrete platform extends seamlessly from inside to outside, connecting both worlds.

The house is entirely constructed in timber-frame construction and clad externally with Douglas fir, finished with Xylho Biofinish. The roof is a green sedum roof with south-facing photovoltaic panels. Internally, the house is finished with oak veneer plywood. The villa is largely self-sufficient, energy-neutral, and equipped with its own water purification system using constructed reed-bed filters.

Spatial Choreography

This villa is not static, but capable of further evolution. Throughout the design, spaces flow into one another — toward daylight, around corners, continuously unfolding. We refer to these as spatial choreographies: spaces that meander, invite discovery, and create opportunities for encounter.

A good space is one that can be moved through; it becomes part of a route. We therefore greatly enjoy creating sequences in space, where one place gradually transitions into the next — where a space continues yet suddenly changes materiality, proportion, or geometry. We like to work with contrasts between small and large, low and high. The villa is surprising in the way its spatial experience develops. Rather than moving through conventional corridors, one simply flows from one space into another.

Villa Vaartjes, Almere (NL)

About This Project

Date

Category

Tags

Site

More Links