Before and After: Breathing New Life into a Dutch Brick Home

April Kennedy April Kennedy
VILLA MOERGESTEL, OTTENVANECK architecten & vormgevers OTTENVANECK architecten & vormgevers
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These days, most people spend the majority of their working lives inside and when they come home, they crave places filled with natural light and open plan living areas. Accordingly, architects often face the challenge of bringing older homes out of their dark boxes and into a more integrated communion with their natural surroundings.

For this project, the architects were given a typically dark, brick Dutch home from 1968 that was perfectly functional, but sadly out-of-date. With clever thinking, they managed to efficiently update the existing structure and achieve a dramatic transformation.

After completely rethinking the approach to the facades, they turned this into a bright, spacious home with glassy translucence and variety. Indoor and outdoor life are melded into one, bucket-loads of sunlight are allowed to light up the interiors and the finishes give the impression of broad, light panes of glass, pale blues and whites.

Come and see this beautiful Dutch villa in Moergestel, a transformation brought to you by Ottenvaneck Architects and designers.

Before: functional but staid

Before the architects got hold of this home it was a typically late 1960s construction of red- brown bricks, a brown tiled roof and small windows. It offered a sense of solidity, but was closed off from the outside world and served as a ulitaritarian barrier between the home and the rest of the world. 

After: an inspiring facade

It's hard to believe this is the same home now. The dark, brick face has been replaced with a glass wall that offers a more airy and translucent image. While the home appears to have opened up, the occupants are actually offered more privacy than before, for the glass wall entirely covers the front window of the house and the front door is solid. At the same time, the tiny window in the eve of the roof has been turned into a glass wall to invite even more sunlight inside.

The detailing and textures of the glass etching make it almost look like a collection of birch trees during the day, while at night…

After: textures, light and mystery

At night, the glass wall looks almost like a water feature. The wall is lit from within and the detail of the glass etching create an interesting combination of light textures that levitates the whole atmosphere of the home. The impression offered is airy, translucent and lifted into a pale, blue and gold place of mystery. This is a world away from the brown, brick construction of earlier.

After: details that matter

Here we can see the inner corridor of the glass wall and the detailing in the print up close. It is a semi transparent picture of birch trees. The images shimmer and reflect on the front glass window. Privacy is assured while light is allowed to filter into the home.

Before: an underutilised rear

As with the front of the home, this rear view shows a lot of dark brick.  Although there are lots of glass windows, the interior gives the impression of being dark. There is plenty of room for an outdoor entertaining area, but the space is underutilised.

After: vibrant and welcoming

Afterwards a big, broad awning provides generous shelter for open dining. The awning extends the length of the house and the white path draws the eye out to the lawn area and invites the occupants to use it. Gorgeous sliding doors cover virtually the entire back of the house from floor to ceiling and allow the interior to soak up every available bit of sunlight.

After: welcome to the entertaining area

Here's one more angle from inside the open living kitchen area, looking out to the exterior entertaining area. This view offers another perspective on how inviting much more the exterior entertaining areas are for the occupants of this home. Inside and outside are clearly more integrated. 

For more inspirational houses, have a look at Four Families, Four Homes, One Amazing Architect!

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