A Gazillion Glass Blocks Balance Light and Privacy at This Slender Prefab Home in Amsterdam

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Project Details:

Location: Centrumeiland, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Architect: Studioninedots / @studioninedots

Footprint: 2,766 square feet

Builder: Romijn Bouw

Structural Engineer: De Ingenieursgroep

Lighting Design: Clemens Lichtadvies

Photographer: Sebastian van Damme / @svd_fotografie

From the Architect: "A couple with two children, long rooted in Amsterdam, approached us with a simple yet generous request: design a home defined by connection between themselves and their children, while also interacting with the surrounding environment. From that single ambition, they entrusted us with an almost complete carte blanche.

"The site sits on Centrumeiland, a new Amsterdam neighborhood with strong sustainability ambitions and where a self-build culture drives individual expression and experiment. As such, we created Light House: a home made of playfully stacked boxes. Whereas a conventional house concentrates many program elements on the ground floor, we dedicated the family’s important activities—such as eating, gathering with friends, individual relaxing—to its own ‘box’. Then, we arranged these boxes throughout the building envelope in a composition that appears playful yet is carefully considered, creating blocks that can be lived in not only inside, but also on top of and beneath them. As you move through the house, your usual sense of ‘above’ and ‘below’ begins to dissolve.

"The layout is designed to grow with the family’s life. The boxes are meant to spread the key activities in a more engaging way throughout the house, yet they remain open to reinterpretation over time.

"A surprisingly sheltered volume floats above the kitchen area, functioning as a retreat for reading, practicing yoga, watching a film, or relaxing alone. Climbing 46 feet to the top floor, we designed the extroverted ‘holiday home’ as the family’s special gathering space. This tall room has ceiling-high arched windows on either side, opening onto an outdoor terrace with sweeping views across the IJmeer lake. The lower half of the house lies behind a wall of square glass blocks. The blocks filter daylight deep into the house while distorting views, allowing life inside to be perceived from the street, yet abstractly enough to ensure the residents’ feeling of enclosure. This square rhythm continues in the steel grating elements along the rear facade, giving the house a clear and cohesive identity. Industrial materials in shades of gray create a play of textures, giving the exterior an abstract yet fluid presence as light moves through the day.

"Structurally, Light House is built as a lightweight system: a steel frame filled with prefabricated timber elements. This modular, circular approach allows flexibility, ease of disassembly, and longterm sustainability. Like all plots on Centrumeiland, Light House manages water on-site, meeting the island’s sustainability ambitions."