Text description provided by the architects. This distinctive loft is located on the first floor of a historic warehouse on the Brouwersgracht in the centre of Amsterdam. The apartment is designed by Remco Wilcke of CUBE architecten and his partner Marloes van Heteren of SOLUZ. When they found the monument it was still in use as a warehouse, as two separate long and dark rooms of 100m2 each. They bought the place and hoped the council would let them change the status to 'dwelling', which they did after all the plans were submitted.
So in 2008 the old warehouse has been completely transformed to a 200m2 luxury loft. The wall between the two rooms has been opened up, and in the architecture a contrast has been sought between preserving the historic beams and floors, and minimalistic new additions. The new additions such as kitchen and bathroom would be clearly identifiable as such in terms of materiality and form.Because it is a deep and relatively low space, and letting daylight in is therefore very important, an open floor plan is chosen.
The open floor plan also fits the idea of the autonomous designed additions to the ancient monument. The bathroom is the central element in the house situated at the intersection of public and private. The rounded translucent bathroom-wall consists of nearly 1,000 very special glass blocks and acts as a subtle light-object at night next to the dining table. They actually are IKEA vases that are painted white from the inside, and glued together with transparent glue.
