From villa’s to investor driven office buildings: research and design go hand in hand in addressing the issues at stake. Architecture and design are in the end materialized answers to immaterial questions. The proces of design starts with defining the relevant questions and ends with finding the right answers in space, form and shape. It is a dialogue with the site, the client, the advisors and the possibilities of our imagination. But in the end a buliding exists in its own reality and possibly survives its initiators and makers. Thats why, in the end, it is our goal to create architecture and design that is has its own distinctive character and is able to create a quality on its own.
1 • STUDENT CENTRE EUR - ROTTERDAM
About:
The new Erasmus University Rotterdam Student Center is located at the heart of a new master plan for the University area. Designed in combination with De Zwarte Hond, it is set to become a vibrant and central meeting point on the campus where research meets business and science meets culture. Sustainability, usability, transparency, and intimacy are the main objectives for the design of the Student Center. We approached the design with the idea of creating a building that can actively change its facade—not only to adapt to the weather and the cycle of seasons, but also to allow an adjustable level of intimacy inside, depending on the events. Through opening or closing the dynamic lamellae, users can determine how much daylight comes in. This leads to a reduction of the energy consumption, but it also enables one to adjust the level of openness of the building.
2 • BUILDING PLOT ZEELAND - in progress...
3 • VICTOIRE YACHTS
About:
In 2011, Powerhouse Company was offered the chance to engage with a new market segment, thanks to a commission to update the classic Victoire yacht range.
Dutch yacht-building company Victoire was established in 1961. It stands for classic yet modern quality, a concept PHC feel very close to as an office. Moreover, designing a yacht was a great opportunity to broaden the horizon and apply PHC's expertise in interiors to the most demanding of conditions: the confined space below decks.
4 • "LINK" ART WAREHOUSE - Schiphol, Amsterdam
About:
LINK Art Company specializes in curating and renting out art works to companies. Together with Studio Rublek - architectural light designers - they asked for a new space that is efficient in storing and maximized as a showcase of art en light for visiting guests. This paradox of efficiency and beauty is solved in creating a rigid grid based on shelvingsystems and placing a modern pavillion in the center of the space.
5 • VILLA L
A black leather portfolio case with a frame of tender beech and handmade 4x5" C-Prints:
About:
A young family desires a house that is full of paradoxes: simple yet surprising, open yet specific, minimal yet luxurious. With a maximum buildable envelope of three layers, including one subterranean, we resolved this paradox with a concept that is based on a radical differentiation of spatial experiences and characters per floor. A house designed for the hectics of an evolving family – united yet fragmented, plural yet whole.
See the Story in Dezeen Magazine
6 • VILLA 1 - raw
About:
Set in the woodlands of Holland, the program of Villa 1 is oriented optimal towards the views on the terrain and the sun. Half of the program is pushed below ground to meet local zoning regulations. This creates a clear dichotomy in the spatial experience of the house - a glass box ground floor where all mass is concentrated in furniture elements and a medieval basement, where the spaces are carved out of the mass.