Rotterdam architect Antonia Reif has renovated and extended a modest 1960s bungalow, generating a two-storey living room and a generous bedroom that the two open out to the garden .
Situated following to a dyke on the outskirts of the city, the residence was originally created to accommodate a couple with no children. It is now house to a larger family, so Antonia Reif was tasked with doubling its floor region.
“The new owners have two youngsters and the property was too modest for them,” she advised Dezeen.
The present property’s main orientation was in the direction of the street and the rear facade was predominantly closed, which meant the connection with the large backyard at the rear was not optimised.
Since of its place on best of the dyke, the back of the home previously dropped down to a lower storey at the degree of the garden, so minimal excavations have been necessary to lengthen it.
This signifies that, despite its dimension, the extension is not at all noticeable from the front of the constructing.
The principal aim of the addition was to enhance the feeling of spaciousness inside of the home and give a connection in between indoors and outdoors, which was accomplished by introducing massive folding doors that hyperlink the new living area with a decked terrace.
“By opening the folding doors in the direction of the terrace it turns into component of the residing room and vice versa,” Reif stated.
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“This gives a extremely royal and generous environment to the property. Even if the doors are closed, one experiences generosity by feeling the open and green garden space behind the property,” she additional.
A new entrance on the upper floor opens onto a hallway that extends towards a kitchen at the rear. A glazed wall gives views of the backyard immediately upon coming into the property.
“The former narrow entrance location became a generous light room that connects old and new elements of the constructing to each other,” Reif added. “In the inside one particular would not come to feel a separation line in between the previous portion and the new one particular.”
The rest of the upper degree now accommodates 3 bedrooms and a bathroom for the children, as effectively as an workplace at the front of the home for the mother and father.
A twisting staircase connects the kitchen and dining location with a double-height living room featuring massive windows and big pendant lamps suspended from the tall ceiling.
The master bedroom is separated from this room by a partition containing storage and bench seating. A little pantry and foods preparation location on the end of the partition can be employed to serve drinks and foods on the terrace.
The bedroom is linked to a bathroom, sauna and closet found in the old part of the home. A 2nd staircase links this location with the upper floor, while a hallway prospects to storage spaces and the garage.
Minimal interventions had been manufactured to the exterior of the present bungalow to improve its visual unity with the new addition. The roof was extended, the brick facade rendered and wooden details introduced to reference the timber terrace.
“The roof edges stored the same height but stick out now about half a metre, giving much more elegance to the building and connecting the outdated and new parts with every other,” Reif explained.
Previous window frames have been painted dark grey to tie in with the new windows, although dark and heavy resources located throughout the interior were replaced to continue the bright and modern come to feel of the rest of the house.
Photography is by Luuk Kramer.
Project credits:
Architect: Antonia Reif
Structural engineer: Pieters Bouwtechniek
Contractor: Batenburg
Furnishings: Woodwave, Groeneveld&Poirot
Installations: Barth Installatietechniek
Lower ground floor strategy 
Upper ground floor prepare 
Prolonged segment 
Cross segment Dezeen
