31.08.10 Perspublicatie Archizinc Trophy by VMZINC
Special prize for Tradition
Individual house, Tilburg (Netherlands)
Architects: Lode Havermans Architecten
VMZINC product: VMZ Standing seam - QUARTZ-ZINC®
Deceptive simplicity
Two icon-houses complete a housing complex for disabled people built around a restored farmhouse.
In appearance, nothing could be more ordinary than the housing complex designed in Tilburg by the architects at the LHA agency. Made up of houses with two slopes, it seems far removed from the innovative, ultra-contemporary shapes of Dutch housing architecture.
The architects' foremost priority here was to be attuned to the context. The site was occupied by a farm that the owner wanted to convert into housing for people with handicaps. It was possible to accommodate part of the eleven apartments in the existing building. The rest were spread out in two independent extensions that have the common, ordinary appearance of suburban houses. In actual fact, this style of house with two slopes is far from being outdated. Abandoning cubes, numerous
contemporary architects in Holland and elsewhere are seeking to rediscover what they have called the "iconic house".
The sophistication of details compensates for the formal naivety. The walls and roofs form a single envelope, volumetric complexities are banished, rigorous openings leave room for the surfaces to express themselves. Such is the design strategy for this housing icon, followed to the letter by the LHA architects. The horizontal line of the gutters disappears into the roof. This streamlined system eliminates gutters and box gutters and lets cladding take the limelight: wood for the facades and zinc for the roofs. Other details such as the quirky juxtaposition of side windows with the gables and the elegant woodwork on the dormer windows belie the sophistication of the design, demonstrating that simple design is not incompatible with refined finishing details...
