Designing for self-builders requires simplicity in construction and building methods, but also creates possibilities to be very specific and explicit in space and presence. Anne and Merijn bought a building plot in 2013 in the new development area Vossenpels near Nijmegen. Without much help from construction workers, they have built a house themselves. It took them a few years but the result is convincing, with great precision in the details, it is built to perfection. We look back with great pleasure on the collaboration in the design process, Anne and Merijn have self-consciously shaped their own living conditions. This is mainly expressed in the floor plans that have been designed in dialogue. Anne is an art historian, the conversation about the appearance of the house and composition of facades arose from art references such as the work of Mark Rothko and Josef Albers. The house is situated on a prominent spot on an old country road that provides direct access to the new residential area from the dike of the river Waal. We decided that the house should give special meaning to this position and mark the entrance of the new urban area and express the transition of farmland to housing. But in an environment of individual private houses, that seem to be involved in a competition of self-expression, special meaning easily becomes an overstatement.
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