Beta-Calco Inc.

Three Generation House

Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode

THREE GENERATION HOUSE

BETA office for architecture and the city

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Auguste van Oppen, Evert Klinkenberg

CONTRACTOR
ATB Leerbroek

CLIMATE ADVISOR
Huibert Spoorenberg

ENGINEERING
Huibers Constructieadvies

MANUFACTURERS
Kawneer, Sto, Stotherm

AREA
450 m²

YEAR
2018

LOCATION
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

CATEGORY
Residential, Coliving

Text description provided by architect.

Contemplating care between generations, a family comprising of two households decides to build a house together.

Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode

While the younger couple already lives in the city, the grandparents live in the countryside and are keen to move back to the proximity of urban amenities.

Adapting with time. For this mini-apartment building, a concept was devised capable of accommodating changing spatial demands over time.

The elderly couple occupies the top apartment with generous views across the cityscape. This apartment has an elevator and level floors, making it very suitable for the elderly.

Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode

The bottom apartment has an office and a direct relationship with the garden, making it ideal for a working family with young children.

Instead of reducing vertical circulation to a necessity, it occupies the heart of the building. Omnipresent as a sculptural element in the lower apartment, the system gradually transforms into a series of voids higher up in the building.

Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode

This central access system allows a ‘surplus floor’ to be combined with either apartment. Initially used as a space for guests for the topmost apartment, this space can be easily added to the lower apartment through a few elementary technical amendments.

Open vs. enclosed. As though a clair-obscur, the gradient in the building’s plan is emphasized in the building’s contrasting façades.

Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode

The Northern façade is mostly closed to reduce thermal loss and reduce sound exposure along the busy street.

Towards the South, the building opens up completely, maximizing passive solar gain and the connection with the outdoors.

Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode

In between the two contrary façades, the building’s plan undergoes a gradual transformation, from compartmentalized in the North, to open-plan and structured with free-form elements towards the South. Here the building is concluded with an informal filter-like balcony layer.

Material and composition. In a near elementary detailing, the building communicates its composition and materials communicate their purpose.

Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode

Hence the Southern façade is clad only with minimal triple glazing window frames to underline the building’s relationship with the outdoors.

The remaining structural walls are composed of large format concrete masonry, wrapped in high-grade thermal insulation.

Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode
Three Generation House
© Ossip van Duivenbode

Between these walls, bare concrete slabs span 8 meters and offer a clear plane on which warmer timber elements define spatial moments. 

Closed and bare towards the North, light and fragile towards the South, the building is a composition of contrasts.


Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city
Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city
Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city
Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city
Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city


Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city
Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city


Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city
Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city


Three Generation House
© BETA office for architecture and the city

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