This Dutch Apartment Renovation Channels Amsterdam School Style

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Project Details: 

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Designer: DAB Studio / @dabstudio_

Footprint: 1,075 square feet

Photographer: Alice Mesguich

From the Designer: "From the outside, the house already breathes Amsterdam School: the use of brick, the horizontal lines, the stained glass and the typography of the house number at the heavy wooden front door. Style features provided the framework for the design inside, explain DAB co-founders Lotte and Dennis Antonio Bruns. 'Whereas he wanted a more clean, segmented interior to match the architecture of the house, for her it didn't need to be so rigid and there was more need for colors and textures,' says Lotte. 'That gave us room to add a bit more boldness.' One example is breaking through the hall wall, where a large, double-glazed window now creates a spacious and open feeling.

"Although every DAB Studio project is different, the starting point is always the same. 'We do extensive research before we start: the architectural frameworks, history, the neighborhood, style period, features, and so on. This forms the foundation of the concept we come up with. In addition, art always plays a major role in our creations.' An example is the green fruit-picking ladder from 1890, which has been elevated to art. Besides design classics like the Cassina Soriana sofa and Marcel Breuer's Wassily chair, a 17th-century and a contemporary artwork by the residents were the only things that were fixed. Apart from that, Lotte and Dennis had complete freedom, something they were happy to make use of. Dennis: 'The recessed spotlights in the ceiling the client thought gave too direct light, but taking out the whole ceiling went unnecessarily far for us.' Rather, they spent the budget, in collaboration with glass studio Van Tetterode, on creating handmade, unique sculptural ceiling lamps that provide more soft, diffused light—the result of a mould in which small sheets of glass were fused together. DAB Studio also took the fireplace in hand. Moving it would be a major operation, so a creative solution was devised. 'Because it fit the layout better, we made the fireplace wider, the result being that the fireplace mouth is now deliberately not in the middle. This choice gave space to three round, black marble discs—an unmistakable reference to the Amsterdam School period.'"