dgj123 Parques Pop-Up B&B Rotterdam Kralingen, Rotterdam, NL , 2016

An urban house built in 1917 in a monumental neighbourhood of Kralingen was completely renovated and insulated for a young family. While the division of rooms largely follows the original stage, important elements where designed in a contemporary approach. Kitchen and bathroom were refurbished with well-defined inserts into spacious rooms instead of altering a whole space from its previous appearance.

The central skylight was completely replaced for safety reasons by a transparent contemporary glass floor on a steel structure. The motive of the support structure is self-confidently 21st century, but in harmony with the moderate art-deco style of the building.

As the first house in this street, the building was completely insulated. Special thin insulating glass was fitted into the existing windows. Because of the protected and valuable brick façade, only interior insulation was possible. This was solved with a cellulose fiber-based insulation system open to damp with moisture-regulating clay plaster. The heaters where enhanced with a decentralized demand-driven heat recovery system, which reduces CO2 emissions through heat loss while preserving the building structure.

In the basement is the architecture office with a central ping-pong meeting table designed by our Rotterdam friends Studio Hartzema. This working dad and his clients share this space with their children. The alpine panorama found a new place as a landscape trompe l’oeil and office archives. After a long journey from Pigniu dgj044 via Atelier Frankfurt dgj078 it arrived in the Dutch lowlands far below sea level, where it was adapted by Sloom & Slordig builders Schiedam.

The House is for sale at funda.nl by utterly December 2014