26 houses on the island of Borneo

The complex of buildings in the harbor at the end of Amsterdam's Borneo Island is washed by water on three sides, appearing open, hazy, and light. The whole structure consists of two coordinate axes. The first is determined by a strict system of parallel concrete walls. Volumes emerge from the second, arranged (not mechanically) above the walls. The buildings create a large common space occupying the entire plot. Towering above the low mass — the ground-level common area — are the towers of the bedrooms and adjacent rooms. Light penetrates the ground floor through gaps created by the elevation of the volumes. The roof, an important element of the building, is both a domestic and an abstract landscape. Above it rise volumes that provide a small rural scale.
Despite the repetition of elements, the whole is not an expression of a simple puzzle but is based on internal unity. The structure has its origin in connection with the neighboring project, serving as a central point that gradually opens toward three canals. The solution offers control and diversity of housing options based on a strictly structured construction system.
The surface of the walls consists of a fine skin of various thicknesses and permeabilities, made of Canadian cedar treated in an autoclave, based on marine construction technology. Smaller parts that would appear too coarse in wood are replaced by small aluminum castings. The tension between the mass of wood and the small glossy elements is significant. The lightweight wood, omnipresent on the southern facade, dissipates on the northern facade, which is almost entirely made of bricks. The use of wood is influenced, among other things, by the fact that the investor of the construction is also the owner of a factory processing this material. The traditional facade of the new building serves as a counterpoint to the colorful row of family homes by various architects on the other side of the canal.
Lightness and weight, wood and brick (each with a specific composition and structure) form a complementary system — something like a mandala — and seek to draw from both the water and foggy environment as well as from the need for anchoring, stability, and protection, as is expected from a dwelling.