Bedaux-Nagengast Residence | Bedaux de Brouwer Architecten

Thomas Bedaux of Bedaux de Brouwer Architecten designed this single family residence for his family on the edge of a residential area in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Recent changes in the zoning plan yielded a previously non existing lot that is situated at the intersection of three distinctly different worlds. These worlds, an existing block of row houses from the 1950’s, farm land with roaming sheep and an active cemetery, provided unique opportunities that informed the design.

The resulting building is a simple volume that forges particular views towards these worlds by rotating the orientation of the spaces inside. Vertically, the design intensifies the association of the spaces by shifting their relative height. A centrally located staircase adapts to these level differences and lets light in through a high window atop, all the way down to the entry hall.

On the ground floor the entry hall opens up to a dining room and kitchen with adjoining living room, one step down, connected to the garden by large windows and sliding glass doors. An additional kid’s playroom is attached to the dining room.

The first floor contains an art studio that looks out over the street and emphasizes a strong, axial relationship by its large window framing. Higher levels hold the kids bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry room and a master bedroom.

By deliberately varying the size and depth of the window openings, a play on scale is created, making it hard to sense the actual size of the residence. The window of the kid’s playroom is a mere 1,5 meters high from street level.

Important public buildings in the area, such as a school and church informed the character and color of the main material of this house; a lightly mottled ochre brick by Danish Brick company Petersen. The door handles, the letterbox, the house number and the entrance canopy are all designed to continue and expand the firm's own legacy detailing. The narrow window of the lavatory is also a reference detail, to be found in almost every project of the firm.