Canal House HG
Contemporary Meets Classic
We created the perfect home for our clients – and their fine collection of Modernist furniture – by transforming an old canal house apartment on Amsterdam’s stately Herengracht. Sweeping away a cluttered layout, we restored the space’s original beauty, while tailoring it to its new owners.
Tall, skinny and wonderfully atmospheric, the Dutch canal house makes great flexible housing.’
A window on elegance
A window on elegance
We were asked to redesign an apartment for a professional couple and their wonderful art and design collection, located on one of Amsterdam’s most beautiful canals. Our design does away with the existing layout, which did nothing for the space, simplifying the apartment to create two distinct areas: one for living, and one for sleeping. We opened up a large and beautiful window by removing a floor and wall partitions, flooding the apartment with light and opening up the space to atmospheric courtyard views. By playing with varying ceiling heights in the entry hall and split-level ground floor, we created a serious sense of spatial playfulness.
Hitting the heights
We transformed the whole apartment with simple yet elegant solutions.’
Sculptural (love) objects
Sculptural (love) objects
Iconic furniture from the 1950s and 60s by Poul Henningsen, Arne Jacobson, Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen now populates the 19th-century apartment. Harmonizing with the presence of these desirable items, we added a number of sculptural ‘objects’ ourselves, including the spiral staircase that leads to the bedroom upstairs, the monolith-like marble bathroom wall and the library wall with stairs. With these and other pieces, we elaborate on the theme of objects in space.
A lot of existing buildings no longer fill the functions people want, so the most obvious action for us is to transform them.’
