Marcelis residence
This is a house extension and renovation project in Scheveningen, the old fishers town of Den Hague. The original house was tiny at best. It’s the last of a short a row of small workers houses, in a side street to Scheveningen-center. The occupants loved the city and the surf, but really needed some more space. The extension more than doubles the original house and is like a little gem hidden in the alleyway.
Because the fisherman’s house was part of a small row, we didn’t want the extension to alter the scale and ending defined by the side-façade. So the addition was designed in maximal contrast to the existing house; in composition, material and detailing. The façade-cladding on the other hand tabs into the surrounding by referring to the traditional cladding of planks with seems covered by small slats. This does have a twist however; the slats are only used every other plank, as the planks are glued together (possible because of the incredible qualities of Accoya wood). This makes the façade keep the middle between traditional façade cladding and interior cabinet-masonry. This adds to the abstraction of the object, in contrast to the traditional fisherman’s house.
The plot was shaped in such a way that it takes a strange ‘bite’ out of the alley next to it, which was awkward. But as we needed every m2, we decided to place window’s on the front and the back of the side-extension, enabling pedestrians to see through the house, giving a little space back to the alleyway in a visual way. We placed the stairs in this part, ensuring that it would not be filled with furniture.
Where the exterior shows a clear contrast, the interior was designed to maximize the spatiality; For one there are no visible transitions between the two parts in floor or ceiling. Secondly the interior elements connect to the façade-openings, to create a maximum relation of inside and outside; embedding the house in it’s surroundings and extending it’s space beyond it’s small size.
The interior is very clean in it’s lines and details, allowing the textures to come to the front. The concrete floor was left mostly unshielded during construction, to get the look of an older, used floor. The steel stairs were laser-cut from plate steel - based directly on our CAD-drawings –, welded by the contractor it on location and conserved in bee-wax, to keep it’s natural rawness. The veneer of the cupboards is quarter sawn, as it is more abstract and emphases the unity of the wooden blocks.
