Home Futura

This home is a place where you can stay in connection with the natureThe client wants to live nearby the city of Amsterdam but in a surrounding with trees and nature. The home of the future is the home where we can stay in close contact with nature, with healthy building materials for human and the environment.

At Home With Nature is an integral part of the architecture and the nature. The home are perched on an elevation above the forest floor, the forest landscape continuing uninterrupted beneath and around the houses.

The exterior walls on the ground floor are made out of local ivy and local wood, making the plinth of the home de-materialise, as it were (nr.5, page 3). It seems not to exist at all, giving the upper floors an appearance of ‘floating’ in between the trees and the ground. The variety of trees separating the homes and on the terraces amplifies the image that everything becomes one with the surroundings.(nr.4, page 3)

The upper floor consists of timber frames with panoramic offering grand views. It is an omni-faceted building where, on the first floor, the spacious roof terraces provide ample opportunity for quality, diverse outdoor living. Such also planting herbs, fruit and vegetables.

Architectural quality and quality of life

The plot of land selected already has a number of trees on it. Other trees will be planted as well, to compensate for the CO2 created by building work and also attain a bigger positive reduction of CO2 in our living environment and the atmosphere. The trees situated between and near the home will form part of the support structure for exterior decking.  In this way, the trees become one with the architecture and both support each other in the look created. By lifting and cantilevering the floors, a building is created that allows the outdoor area to be extended. Voids and recesses inside the building provide open views and the trees between the built areas offer a continuance of the forest landscape. (nr.2, page 2) The land, as it were, in the forest and the contrast between nature and architecture is softened by the use of natural materials. Their treatment process and texture provide added transparency as well as a boundary of the space.(nr.1, page 2) 

The narrow and minimal amount of construction on the ground floor, and the overhangs of the timber structure with its diversity in transparency, allow the application of timber to dissolve seamlessly into the backdrop of the trees and the surrounding . 

In particular, the ambivalence of the lighting on the ground floor and the apparent heaviness of the floor above it give an interesting answer to the building’s location. A feeling of temporality due to lifting the ensemble up and the immediate presence of the chosen architectural language and material/colour reflect the paradox of living on a beautiful green/forest location with beautiful vistas, amidst the trees. (nr.3, page 2).

Landscape, public spaces and mobility

By lifting the building from the ground, we feel that we are able to treat the surrounding environment respectfully. The aim of our design is to allow client to actually  “living with nature ”. Our proposals is in sync with the surrounding woodlands, such as ferns, indigenous shrubs and groundcover in combination with boulders and moss, to make the vegetation look as natural as possible. The chosen vegetation does not need much light and water. The building itself is already defined through its own space. 

Everyone will immediately experience the area underneath the building as their own. Water storage will also be installed in the shape of a helophyte pond (wadi), including natural and suitable plants like reed and other aquatic plants. Additional water storage will be built for a greywater circuit with an overflow to the green fields.

Materials

The proposals have a cross laminated timber (CLT) and timber frame structure. This construction is flexible, healthy and reusable. This can prefabricated of site and easily transported and assembled at the site within approximately 1 months. The timber used comes from well-managed forestry areas from Skandinavia. The walls have timber window frames with triple glazing and the wall cladding is also made of sustainable timber. Insulation that is applied is cellulose, a natural material. We don’t use concrete for this project.We use also steel some parts of the construction which can be reused. In this way we don’t loss any material for the future. 

Roofs are covered in EPDM rubber roofing material with a moss-sedum roof covering. Research shows that this roof construction method has a life cycle of approximately 50 years. The material can also be recycled.

Any waste resulting from the production of membranes, sheeting waste during roof installation, as well as old foil seals that are demolished, can be economically recycled. The molecule chains are broken down again, so that the original building blocks are revealed once more, allowing new mixtures, and thus new EDPM sheeting, to be produced. As such, we can comply with our goal of using materials responsibly. Exterior walls are made of thermally modified wood which has fire proof treatment. 

Water

The home is equipped with a green roof with a variety plants on the of terraces. Water drainage from the terraces flows at a slight slope to drainpipes. A greywater system will be installed for the client. Rainwater is captured through a helophyte filter in an underground water tank, which is connected to a greywater and irrigation system.

The wet areas are - because of the pipe system - in a fixed location. All other spaces can be flexibly arranged and are adaptable. 

Health, comfort, sustainability and data

Natural materials that offer warmth in appearance, flexibility in the floor plan, excellent insulation and ventilation, ample daylight, safety, acoustic insulation as well as resonance damping, all contribute to a healthy living environment. All these factors have been taken into account with our design. The selected option to terraces on the upper floor certainly contributes to a sense of secure living in the forest.

We will provide extensive assistance to the client in this respect, and will give them advice on how they can make optimal use of the freedom and flexibility of this home. Even space sharing (shared living) or setting up an office/atelier/guest room are among the many possibilities that this home have to offer.

We will only be able to process data and monitor quality of life if client give us permission to do so. An app would be an excellent way of doing.