![Black House / Bakers Architecten - Windows, Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5012/869b/28ba/0d67/1700/038d/medium_jpg/stringio.jpg?1361425143)
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Architects: Bakers Architecten
- Area: 1100 m²
- Year: 2010
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Photographs:Maarten Noordijk, Frank Stahl
Text description provided by the architects. In Utrecht’s museum quarter, just south of the city centre, there was for many years a vacant plot on the corner of Lange Nieuwstraat and Vrouwjuttenstraat. This site in the midst of historical buildings is now occupied by ‘Het Zwarte Huis’ (The Black House), a complex containing six apartments with semi-underground parking and the new premises of Bakers Architecten.
The streetscape is characterized by heterogeneous, lot-by-lot development with distinctive corner buildings. Het Zwarte Huis is a contemporary addition to the existing urban fabric, in which the notion of ‘living above work’ has been accentuated by placing the dwellings in a solid volume on top of a glazed podium.
![Black House / Bakers Architecten - Facade, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5012/86ad/28ba/0d67/1700/0391/medium_jpg/stringio.jpg?1361313659)
Lange Nieuwstraat begins at Domplein and runs via a gentle curve to the Centraal Museum. The site lies at the mid-point of the curve from where there is an overview of the entire street. This unique vantage point is fully exploited with a large bay window.
![Black House / Bakers Architecten - Table, Chair, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5012/86dd/28ba/0d67/1700/039d/medium_jpg/stringio.jpg?1361313713)
An internal courtyard has been created by placing the black volume parallel to the Lange Nieuwstraat. This volume also contains the various means of access for the complex as a whole. The semi-underground car park is reached via a car parking lift, while a communal staircase leads to the walkways along which the apartments are situated. The wide walkways also serve as outdoor space for the dwellings.
![Black House / Bakers Architecten - Windows, Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5012/86b6/28ba/0d67/1700/0393/medium_jpg/stringio.jpg?1361313670)
Het Zwarte Huis was constructed using 55-centimetre-long ‘Kolumba’ bricks. The apartments facing Vrouwjuttenstraat have a white rendered facade. The party walls on this side form a cantilever on Vrouwenjuttenstraat, thereby relieving the podium facade of any structural function and allowing it to be entirely of glass.