Hasta La Ideas

This house in the Dutch city of Almere by Swedish architect Johan Selbing and Swiss landscape architect Anouk Vogel is completely covered in reflective glass to allow it to blend in with its surroundings (+ slideshow).

Selbing and Vogel designed the private house for a plot in an experimental housing development in Almere – a city that was only established in 1976 but now has over 195,000 residents – in response to a competition brief calling for a building that would relate to a site within a forest clearing.

The house’s simple boxy shape is constructed from an aluminium frame that supports panels of toughened mirrored glass, with a mirrored composite panel running around the top and bottom edges of the facade.

“The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior,” explained the architects.

Doors sits flush against the facade and are only noticeable thanks to handles that project from the surface and a change in the ground level that rises to meet the height of the floor inside the building.

An entrance at the the side of the building leads into a compact interior with a home office at one end and master and guest bedrooms at the other.

Sliding partitions between these rooms and the open-plan kitchen and living space can be opened or closed to meet different requirements.

“Long sight lines in the interior make the house appear larger from the inside, and anchor it to its surroundings,” the architects pointed out.

Surfaces are covered in pale birch multiplex panels that compliment the light-filled interior and views of the nearby trees.

Built-in storage covers one wall and is punctuated by a secret window that looks onto the street but is invisible from outside.

Selbing and Vogel were one of twelve winning entrants in the design competition. They were invited to construct their building but had to source a client to pay for it.

“In dialogue with the client, the competition proposal was worked out to the smallest detail, taking a demand for optimum accessibility into consideration,” the architects added.

Photography is by Jeroen Musch.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Mirror House, Almere

The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior. The floor plan has been designed to be as compact as possible, with the possibility to adapt to different lifestyles. All interior walls are covered with a birch multiplex panel, whose warm appearance contrasts with the elegant and strict glass facade.

After De Realiteit and De Fantasie, the third edition of small experimental housing settlements in Almere has been launched under the title De Eenvoud. The brief of the competition called for an individual house with a strong relation to its surroundings. The twelve winning teams were given the possibility to realise their designs in an open area in the forest of Noorderplassen-West, but had to find the buyers of the houses themselves.

The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its interior. The floor plan has been designed to be as compact as possible, with the possibility to adapt to different lifestyles. In dialogue with the client, the competition proposal was worked out to the smallest detail, taking a demand for optimum accessibility into consideration.

The original concept with a slightly raised floor (for a better view), sliding doors, built-in cupboards and a single-level layout, has therefore been further refined. Long sight lines in the interior make the house appear larger from the inside, and anchor it to its surroundings. All interior walls are covered with a birch multiplex panel, whose warm appearance contrasts with the elegant and strict glass facade.

Location: De Eenvoud, Almere, The Netherlands
Client: Private
Project team: Johan Selbing, Anouk Vogel
Size: 120 m2
Program: Private house
Process: competition 2006
Start construction: 2012
Completion: 2013
Structural Engineering: Buro voor Bouwadvies BV, Dalfsen
Installation Advice: Earth Energie Advies BV, Boskoop
Contractors: Bouwbedrijf Jadi BV, Genemuiden Slump Fictorie, Hoogeveen (facade)

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camouflages with its surroundings appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch architects MVRDV have proposed extending the city of Almere into a lake by building a square-shaped artificial peninsula covered in gardens (+ slideshow).

The 45 hectare extension is part of the Dutch city’s bid to host the World Horticultural Expo in 2022 and would host the six-month festival as well as providing land to build a new university plus offices, homes and leisure facilities.

Designs for the exhibition comprise a patchwork of gardens that the architects have called a “plant library” as well as a series of pavilions and greenhouses.

Once the expo is over, the green development would provide a permanent addition to the fast-developing city that was first established in 1976 on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

“We dream of making green cities,” says Winy Maas of MVRDV. “A city that is literally green as well as ecological. A city that produces food and energy, cleans its own water, recycles waste and holds a great biodiversity.”

The winning candidate is expected to be announced in October.

MVRDV have come up with a series of design concept for Almere, including a series of artificial islands and a neighbourhood based on a string of beads.

Winy Maas also chatted to Dezeen about their UK house project Balancing Barn in an interview we filmed last year. Watch the movie »

See all our stories about MVRDV »

Here’s some more information from MVRDV:

The City of Almere presents its plans for the Floriade 2022 candidature. Almere is one of the four Dutch cities left in the race for the prestigious horticultural Expo which takes place once every ten years in the Netherlands and is currently open in Venlo. The MVRDV plan for Almere is not a temporary expo site but a lasting green Cité Idéale as a green extension of the existing city centre. The waterfront site opposite the city centre will be developed as vibrant new urban neighbourhood and giant plant library which will remain after the expo. The ambition is to create a 300% greener exhibition than currently standard, both literally green and sustainable: each program on the site will be combined with plants which will create programmatic surprises, innovation and ecology. The site with a vast program such as a university, hotel, marina, offices and homes will at the same time be more urban than any other Floriade has been before, literally constructing the green city. The Nederlandse Tuinbouwraad (NTR) will decide in October which city will be organising the next Floriade in 2022.

Amsterdam’s metropolitan area stands at the verge of a large housing growth. With 60.000 new homes the city of Almere will realise the largest share of this new development. Almere has the ambition to combine the urban growth with improved quality for its citizens. MVRDV proposes the ‘green’ extension of Almere city centre opposite the existing centre, transforming the lake into a central lake and connecting the various neighbourhoods of the Dutch new town. The plan foresees a dense exemplary and green city centre extension which at the same time is very flexible: an invitation to the Floriade organiser NTR to develop the plan further.

Winy Maas discusses the plan: “We dream of making green cities. City that is literally green as well as ecological. A city that produces food and energy, cleans its own water, recycles waste and holds a great biodiversity. A city which might even be autarkic: A symbiotic world of people, plants and animals. Can this symbiosis between city and countryside offer essential argumentation to the global concerns regarding urbanisation and consumption? Can we realise in the next ten years an exemplary ‘green’ city which realises this synthesis? And could this city be the Floriade 2022?”

Almere Floriade will be developed as a tapestry of gardens on a 45ha square shaped peninsula. Each block will be devoted to different plants, a plant library with perhaps an alphabetical order. The blocks are also devoted to program, from pavilions to homes, offices and even a university which will be organised as a stacked botanical garden, a vertical eco-system in which each class room will have a different climate to grow certain plants. Visitors will be able to stay in a jasmine hotel, swim in a lily pond and dine in a rosary. The city will offer homes in orchards, offices with planted interiors and bamboo parks. The Expo and new city centre will be a place that produces food and energy, a green urban district which shows in great detail how plants enrich every aspect of daily life.

MVRDV earlier developed the Almere 2030 masterplan and the radical DIY urbanism plan for Almere Oosterwold, and has engaged in vast research concerning urban farming, urban density and many aspects of modern agriculture. In 2000, MVRDV realised the Netherlands pavilion at the Hanover World Expo. Almere is one of four remaining candidate cities besides Amsterdam, Groningen and Boscoop region. In October the winning scheme and city will be announced by the NTR.

Program (selection): 45ha city centre extension with panorama tower, green housing exhibition (22.000m2/115 homes) hotel (30.000m2), university (10.000m2), conference centre (12.000m2) various expo pavilions (25.000m2) smart green house (4.000m2), care home (3.000m2), childrens expo, marina, forest, open air theatre, camping and other facilities (25.000m2).

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by MVRDV appeared first on Dezeen.