In the wooded and accidented surroundings of Nijmegen, a modest city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, lies a beautifully hidden plot, hardly visible from the street. An ideal place to live. At the end of 2016, Engel Architects was approached by the owner, a young family from Nijmegen, with the request to design their dream house here. It had to be a modern house but one with a warm feeling, and had to be relatively large yet feel modest.
The house is quite modern and designed with a certain elegance and sophistication. The overhangs give the house an intimate character, the large glass surfaces bring nature inside. The building volume is made up of four asymmetrical volumes, each of which is closely related to the human scale. The asymmetrical approach of the design makes it possible to size each room exactly to suit the function it is intended for.
It was important to the clients that each space was provided with natural daylight. Around the house, the surrounding terrain is lowered in some places, so the natural light can also enter the rooms in the basement.
The roof is designed as a double-curved butterfly roof. This shape does justice to the precise location of the house on the plot and strengthens the relationship of the various rooms with the surrounding garden.
The materialization of the house is the result of careful consideration of various materials on the plot itself. The light brick from which the house is constructed fits perfectly into the green surroundings of the wooded plot. The warm colors of the oak window frames contrast beautifully with it.
The garden design was created by Buro Mien Ruys. In the garden you can dwell, walk and disappear. Straight lines are kept to a minimum. In some places, the trees and plants reach as far as the house, so the green character of the plot can almost literally be felt inside the house.
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