H House / Wiel Arets Architects

Jun 2010

Uploaded by Nico Saieh — Filed under: Houses ,Selected , Concrete, Glass, Joao Morgado, The Netherlands, Wiel Arets Architects

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Architects: Wiel Arets Architects
Location: Maastricht, The Netherlands
Project Year: 2005-2009
Photographs: João Morgado

ground floor plan

second floor plan

Made for a couple, the H-House is located in a leafy area of Maastricht. The clients are a dancer and an actor, as well as landscape architects. Behind the site is a formal garden, which is occasionally open to the public.

The interior of the home is primarily a single loft-like space with a central mezzanine. Two smaller independent volumes – the entrance and bathroom – are adjacent to this main volume. Terraces define the position and shape of the house, with each terrace having its own separate character.

Having no structural walls, only a few rectangular columns support the house’s slabs, which have been positioned to minimize impact. All other walls, whether internal or external, consist of glass. The house’s stair is an independent object within this loft-like setting. The required range of privacy, as desired by the owners, can be controlled with a series of curtains that can be drawn to softly define the interior spaces.

The combination of transparent and opaque glass, as well as the sliding and fixed portion of the façade, creates a number of different possible responses to the changing of the seasons and the fading of daylight. The spaces of the house are suffused with richness due to the layering of this unadorned configuration, the combination of materials and the variations in use.

: © João Morgado

: © João Morgado

: © João Morgado

: © João Morgado

: © João Morgado

: © João Morgado

: ground floor plan

: second floor plan

: section 01

: section 02

* Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "H House / Wiel Arets Architects" 06 Jun 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 09 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/63134>

Comments (8)
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mima says:

not sure about the small corner pieces of the façade and the rectangular columns, maybe round or oval columns would suit better? i know everything else is very edgy, or round columns wouldn’t really suit, but still… just a gut feeling…

# June 6, 2010 at 10:14

sullka says:

I also think there’s something not quite right with the columns.

They say they’re trying to “minimize impact” but the shape and location/orientation seems sort of random at times, and actually they do impact the space, and not in a good way.

Unless there’s a furniture/cabinetry layout we don’t know about that works along with columns, they’re in fact affecting negatively the space in some cases.

Other than that, nice home.

# June 9, 2010 at 16:16

omikey says:

Very nice looking home by Wiel Arets + Deadbirds Architects.

# June 6, 2010 at 15:31

Aga says:

I like the stairs !!

# June 6, 2010 at 15:50

Chasang says:

The stairs are cool, but i find them a little unerving. Maybe i can imagine myself falling on my face trying to navigate them. The reflective glass skin gives the house an incredible ethereal quality in that light, but i would love to see how it looks in different daylight conditions.

# June 7, 2010 at 07:58

natasha says: