Bellamystraat 33 (+33bis), Utrecht
Combining apartments and ground floor renovation

Completed, 2005

        This renovation combined the apartment on the upper two floors with the ground floor garden apartment creating one home within the existing envelope.
        By combining these two apartments into one, the ground floor offered the opportunity to create an open plan where the flowing space offers spaces for work, music, dance, and leisure/study while connecting with its garden. Each member of the family had a designated space to practice their creative activity. The flowing space allows the opportunity of their creative ideas to be shared and cross stimulated whilst the light and views of the fruit tree garden can penetrate deep into the space. This creative bonding brings a family together instead of being separated by private spaces behind doors. The only interior doors in the first two floors are those of the wc's. The rest of the space flows with different diagonal views, which are associated with the level of the eye during an activity (reclining, sitting, and standing).
        The design of the open space on the ground floor is articulated with an existing interior structural wall painted in tomato red, punctured with two large square openings lined with natural wood. This seemingly freestanding wall at the garden side runs through the space to the outside entry at the street side. Because of the treatment of this interior supporting wall as an object, one experiences the total width of the space defined by its white surround.
        The south garden wall is constructed from translucent polycarbonate building panels in an aluminum structure providing privacy whilst allowing the light from the sun to create a moving shadow play of plants on the neighbors side while giving light to the garden.