Slightly quirky, modest and covered in fishnets, Benthem Crouwel Architect’s holiday house turns a piece of Dutch vernacular into a sleek but cozy nest. Modeled after the local ‘schapenboeten’ sheds for storing hay and tools in a windy climate, the home is now part of the landscape on Texel island, a popular tourist destination in the Wandsee known for its fishing and unique sheep breed.
Coated with rubber and wrapped in different colors of fishing nets, the home’s exterior directly references not only the obligatory Dutch omnipresence of water, but also the livelihoods of the surrounding inhabitants. Red, green, blue and grey nets on the exterior outline the house’s interior plan, featuring ample glass openings, more fishnets, and a flexible basement space. While clearly indebted to the “decorated shed” typology, the home’s local references make it endearingly unique, tactfully pulled off by architects known for such larger-scale, institutional work as the Stedelijk Museum or Kulturbau 'Forum Confluentes' Koblenz.
Project description from Benthem Crouwel:
Texel is the largest of the Dutch Wadden islands. It is an island of sheep and fishermen. Iconic features in the Texel landscape are the so called ‘schapenboeten’: little sheds that are not used for sheep, but for storage of hay and tools. They stand alone in the vast open meadows, on land far away from the farm. The sheds have a gabled roof with a bevelled top section and face southwest, which is the most common wind direction. The entrance door is situated on the straight and sheltered northeast side of the building.
The design of the holiday home has been inspired by these characteristic sheds, but contrary to the sheds, the house had many windows in both the facades and the roof. The windows provide an excellent view of the surroundings: from the kitchen/living area one gets a panoramic view of the island, from the first floor the dunes and the sea are visible, and from the bedroom one glimpses the endless sky.
The house has a simple lay-out. The kitchen/living area, bedroom, bathroom and toilet are situated on the ground floor, additional places to sleep, work areas and storage rooms are situated on the first floor and in the basement. The interior is also simple: functional and light, not distracting from the landscape outside. The large glass façade of the kitchen/living area strengthens the relationship with the garden. Nature becomes an important feature of the house. On this side of the building, inside and outside seem to merge.
Factsheet: Holiday Home Texel
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Former Managing Editor and Podcast Co-Producer for Archinect. I write, go to the movies, walk around and listen to the radio. My interests revolve around cognitive urban theory, psycholinguistics and food.Currently freelancing. Be in touch through longhyphen@gmail.com
4 Comments
Cute proportions, nice interior spaces and light but....what makes fishing nets a good cladding material? Isn't the purpose of a net pretty much exactly the opposite of the purpose of a cladding?
I want insane rationalism.
Donna, since they kick off the article with this: "...exterior directly references not only the obligatory Dutch omnipresence of water..." I am surprised to see no signs of water anywhere in the site photos.
I can only imagine what kind of nesting this net-type cladding offers the local wildlife.
I love the color coding of the outside surface to interior function, too - but couldn't that have been achieved with clapboard? I love the overall stance of this project, just so confused by the nets.
The colour coding is nice but I was really hoping to see fishing nets used as interior walls. The white nets in the guardrails are just a tease of what could be possible.
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