De Ruyterkade 128, 1011 AC Amsterdam
project image
Ijburg house
Ijburg, Amsterdam
The house is located on a very small plot in IJburg; a recently developed suburb of the city of Amsterdam, which triggered the idea to making a vertical garden; nature and culture merge in one structure. The house is designed as a monolythical sculptural mass, contrasted with open collective spaces that seem to have been 'carved out' from the solid volume, connecting them to the street, the garden and roof terrace. The ornamental masonry texture is not only a decorative enhancement of the sculptural mass, but also functions as an underlayement for different sorts of climbing-plants to grow up the facade, giving birth to the idea of a vertical garden, which was enhanced by integrating plantbarges on several levels in the facade. The ecological character of the house, was reinforced by making use of passive and active solar-energy and an earth heating-pump.