NL / E

The Milletstraat Amsterdam is situated in the Amsterdam-Zuid (South) district. The area is known by its elongated housing blocks in the Amsterdam School style. The appartment of our client is situated on the third and fourth floor. When bought, it consisted of two separated apartments, accessible by a public staircase. The request of the client was to combine these apartments into one single family home. Therefor we changed the structure of the apartment. From an apartment with a vestibule in the middle of the floor into an appartment with a corridor extended over two floors, working like an axis.

 

The Milletstraat Amsterdam is situated in the Amsterdam-Zuid (South) district. The townplanning scheme of this area was designed by architect Berlage in the 1920th. The area is known by its elongated housing blocks in the Amsterdam School style. The closed housing blocks have a formal exterior (street side) and a closed informal interior (the courtyard).

The appartment of our client is situated on the third and fourth floor. When bought, it consisted of two separated apartments, accessible by a public staircase. The request of the client was to combine these apartments into one single family home.

In the original plan, the living spaces are situated around a vestibule in the middle of every floor. This works well for an apartment of one single floor but doesn't for an appartment of two floors. An additional challenge was that the fourth floor was devided into two small student dwellings. One student dwelling is still in use and will not become part of the new appartment.

The key question was: how can we give a good structure to this one-and-a-half floor appartment?

To connect the two floors we decided to change the vestibule into a smaller and longer corridor. This corridor is extended from the third floor to the fourth floor. The living-spaces are now ordered along two sides of the corridor. To enhance the working of the axis, we decided to place the staircase in the length on one side of the corridor. The doors in the corridor work like open porches and deliberately all have the same size to create a reoccuring framing of the spaces.