- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Suzanne Paap
Text description provided by the architects. Dutch design studio Lab-S has renovated a 30's row house in the city of Utrecht (the Netherlands) and added a contemporary two story extension in harmony with the old house. The house has been made suitable for a young family with three kids as each floor has been given a new layout. Also, the old extension at the back of the house has been replaced by a new one of the same size. The design of this new façade is inspired by the old rear façade, with its large amount of window frames. Lab-S chose to keep the steel structure of the new extension in sight and add new steel window frames in the same colour. The result is a robust and at the same time slender looking extension that lets natural light enter deep into the old building.
The new living room on the ground floor is positioned at the back of the house, near the garden. This space is separated from the dining room and kitchen through high (glazed) steel doors that not only function as a room divider, but also serve as an eye-catcher in the living area.
Two new bathrooms are located in the middle of the house on the first and second floor. Since these bathrooms are not positioned at a facade, Lab-S proposed a large skylight in the middle of the roof bringing in natural light into the two super imposed bathrooms. A gap in the master’s bathroom floor on the second floor lets daylight reach the children's bathroom on the level below.
