Borneo - plot no. 12

In the densest settlement of family houses in the Netherlands, in the eastern part of the Borneo peninsula of the Amsterdam harbor, you can feel like you are in an architecture gallery. On plots, each measuring 5x16 meters and of uniform height, the entire contemporary Dutch elite has taken turns, led (literally) by Bjarne Mastenbroek. The Rotterdam office MVRDV, which built two houses here, complicated the strict building conditions by choosing to build one of the houses on only half of the plot, thus creating the narrowest house on Schepstimmermanstraat. They divided the five-meter-wide plot lengthwise in half, leaving them only 40 m² for construction. Neither façade of the house has windows. In contrast, the long façade is completely glazed. Stacking boxes are placed into the vacant half of the house, creating a play of empty spaces with living rooms. The house is a combination of a steel and wooden frame filled with lime-sand bricks, with wooden and steel ceilings, and polished concrete flooring.