Extension of a post-war house Zeist, the Netherlands - Contrast and balance in the same renovation project.
A timber clad extension creates a new relationship between a brick semi-detached house and its green surrounding.
Kraal Architecten and Lab-S have joined forces for the renovation of a semi-detached house in Zeist, the Netherlands. The project consists of a large interior transformation with a total new layout and a new addition at the back of the original house.
The original post-war house has a brick facade and a pitched roof construction with ceramic roof tiles. Large trees stand at the back of the rear garden creating a beautiful natural scenery, viewed from the house. The new extension opens the original house to this scenery. Its appearance is distinct from the original house. Using natural materials, it relates to the natural surroundings, while maintaining a clear contrast between existing and newly developed parts.
The extension provides additional space on the ground floor for a new entrance hall and contains a storage room. On the outside, the storage room has a timber façade in which only the door knob reveals the presence of a door. Whereas the storage has a closed character, the new entrance opens itself to the street using large window frames and a new canopy above the entrance door.
The design brief contained requests for spatial additions on each floor. Three new residential programs at the back of the house (kitchen, bedroom and study) are located one above the other and connected to each other by a new staircase. This clustering results in a vertical extension on the rear side in which parts of the old façade and roof construction maintain visible.
The new rooms in this part of the extension all have floor to ceiling windows, providing nice garden views. Whereas the bedroom on the first floor protrudes more into the garden, the study on the second floor is placed behind the raised volume of the staircase. This segmentation breaks up the high volume of the new extension and makes each space more distinct on the exterior.