H' House

Maastricht, Netherlands

Photo © Jan Bitter

Architects: Wiel Arets Architects

Location: Veldstraat 12, 6227 SZ Maastricht, Netherlands
Year: 2010

This house is situated in suburban Maastricht, just south of the city's center. It was designed for a couple—a dancer and an actor, who are also landscape architects—and is located within an existing formal garden that the owners had cultivated over the years. Composed of two concrete floor slabs wrapped in an all glass skin that varies in shades of opacity–from transparent to opaque–the interior is organized so that it assumes the characteristics of a single, open, loft-like space. The two exceptions to this completely open living situation are the contiguous volume of the upper story bathroom, which cantilevers over the terrace entry off the kitchen below, and that of the front entry, which projects from the main volume to create a roof terrace. The house's staircase is suspended from the first level so that it does not touch the ground floor; its lower portion is composed of movable units that also function as storage for the ground floor kitchen and living space. Small rectangular columns support the house's concrete slabs. The owners are able to reconfigure their interior spaces, due to the numerous curtains–whose tracks are recessed within the floor slabs–and the lower components of the staircase; ephemerally defining rooms reflective of the seasonal changes within the surrounding formal garden.