Amsterdam studio Barde + vanVoltt transformed this garage into a light-filled family home that celebrates the building’s industrial past.
Located in central Amsterdam, just a few steps away from the Rijksmuseum, the 100-square-metre new home is on the ground floor of a residential terrace built in the 1930s. It originally hosted a hardware store but was most recently used as a garage.
“We wanted to keep the space as wide as possible without having corridors or a hallway because that’s what makes this home unique in Amsterdam,” Barde + vanVoltt co-founder Valérie Boerma said. “Most apartments are divided over multiple levels and are very narrow.”
Barde + vanVoltt was asked to transform the building into a wide and open family home for four that brings in as much natural light as possible. The brief also called for the use of sustainable and natural materials as well as a simple, minimalist interior that allows details to stand out.
At the rear of the building, Barde + vanVoltt raised the roof and converted the ceiling into skylights. Underneath, the home plan accommodates a total of three bedrooms – a master with an en-suite and two children’s rooms that double as playrooms.
Each is delineated by timber-framed glass walls and doors, allowing natural light to filter into these darker spaces.
The studio added industrial fixtures such as untreated wooden frames, a freestanding tin bath and sink in the en-suite, brushed and burnished copper tapware in the wet areas of the new home, and a kitchen island made from rolled steel with a quartzite benchtop.
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The large, double front doors that open up onto the road were switched from solid wood to glass, maximising the amount of light in the home‘s open-plan kitchen, dining and living area.
Another designers’ challenge was balancing the integrity of the home with the needs of a young family. The building’s original concrete floor was retained and offset against natural clay walls and arched wooden door and window frames reminiscent of the art deco period.
“We wanted to add warmth to the concrete floor, so we designed the wooden Meranti doors with a reference in the arching detail to the 1930s when the property was built,” Bart van Seggelen, co-founder of Barde + vanVoltt, explained.
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