At the foot of the Koppenberg there is a beautiful old inn. Beautiful but old.Story and decline.Everyday people and family. Piet and Ellen have inherited this house. If history makes this a house, than at the same time history makes this barely a house. The stories have taken their toll.
Nevertheless, Piet and Ellen want to rescue it. The history.The house. But Piet and Ellen do not have the resources to preserve the house.
A balancing act: that’s the least it will be. To respect or redefine the resources.To find opportunities.
The house stays what it is. There is no other way. Nobody would want it any other way.
Within the house a new house is drawn. Smaller, yet always the same size.
A house of glass. With floors made from formwork. Formwork that will not be removed disappear. As formwork, it is sufficient to make space. Formwork that is maybe just Meccano. It’s a way to redefine the resources. The resources are material. And Piet and Ellen. They will do the work themselves.
A glazed inner facade fulfills its purpose: to show and to define at the same time. A winter house inside a summer house.But always the same house.
The benchmark of sustainability could be taken into consideration here; the air gap between the summer and the winter house could perform extremely well as insulation. The tiled stove is positioned centrally with its back to the former fireplace, not just for heating performance but also as a reminder of the original house. The house of today has a place in the house of yesterday.
An attic can be more today than it used to be. A storage space turns into a cosy interior under the roof. On the roof there is a dormer. A dormer that is there but not there. Its sides are mirrored, prolonging the perspective of the roof. It is echoed by another trompe-l’oeil, the window in the front facade.
There will always be the new house. The new house will be the old house.
The winter house will lean against one wall of the old house. That wall deserves some insulation. The wall continues in the finishing of the roof. Cement facing tiles draw their own figure. And on this figure the actual facade is drawn. As a wall.A thought.A drawing.
About sustainability
What can you do when all the current thoughts about what has gradually become the sole expectation are unrealistic: sustainability. When sustainability is just engineering.
Try to take what is realistic further than expected. Not even consistent with the expectations, but consistent with the unexpected.
What is not realistic must be allowed to be unexpected. Right?
A certain attitude imposes itself. But isn’t that the attitude of which one must say: that is what architecture is, or could be? Today, critical acuity makes that which is sustainable differently sustainable. Architecture as a status of a critical mind: with barely anything, totally different. That is equally sustainable. Or, that is exactly what is sustainable. Possible, isn’t it?
