AD Classics: Almere House / Benthem Crouwel Architekten

© Courtesy of

Architects: Benthem Crouwel Architekten
Location: Almere,
Project Area: 65 sqm
Project Year: 1984
Photographs: Courtesy of Benthem Crouwel Architekten

The house was designed for an unusual homes competition held by De Fantasie in Almere. The brief was to design a house without taking into account current building regulations. All prize-winners were awarded a plot of land on loan for five years. This meant that the house and its foundations had to be easy to dismantle.

Plans

In the compact house, the living room is bounded on three sides by glass sheets to gather the surrounding landscape into the house. Sandwich panel walls enclose the private zone comprising the two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. The extraordinary construction of the house combats wind pressure in three ways. The space-frame floor structure is attached to a foundation of concrete slabs, stabilizing fins are placed strategically at the seams of the toughened glass sheets and finally two steel tension cables secure the lightweight profiled steel roof borne aloft by the glazing.

© Courtesy of Benthem Crouwel Architekten
Cite: Jett , Megan. "AD Classics: Almere House / Benthem Crouwel Architekten" 03 Jul 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed 23 May 2013. <http://www.archdaily.com/147338>

6 comments

  1. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    hmm I wouldn’t call it old at all. This type of design is always new and fresh. The flexibity of such architecture makes the world much easier!

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