CONVERGENT HOUSE

CONVERGENT HOUSE
by Enrique Krahe

Built in 1996 in the historic center of Delft, and surrounded by traditional row houses, Pluympot XII had a double façade, facing both the street and the inner gardens. Despite furnished with large glazed surfaces, the house was neglecting the relationship with the exterior, and inner spaces were insufficiently illuminated, and visually segregated.

The transformation concerns mainly the inner distribution, except the rear side, were a small court appears as a result of the displacement of the façade. The intervention reverses thus the spatial order of the house by centralizing a double height space, and develops following three premises:

1:: Maintaining the two glazed fronts, enhancing the transparency of the house towards the exterior.
2:: To gradually increase the width of the lateral wall in order to accommodate such functions as storage, kitchen and caltwalk. The kitchen-dinning creates a sort of vortex around which circulations, space and light converge.
3:: Merging of spaces both in plan and section, in such way that light (direct or indirect) and views diagonally criss-cross the house.

Credits:
Architects: Enrique Krahe
Collaborators: Aranzazu Montero, David Hurtado
Contractor: Spijker Renovatie
Location: Delft, Netherlands
Date: 2017
Photography: Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán + Rocío Romero)