Boathouse | Werkstatt

In the summer of 2013 we designed and built a boathouse for a private client in the north of the Netherlands, in the province of Friesland. Together with film maker Olle Wennardt we made a short film about the project:

The water rich province of Friesland is a popular place for sailing enthusiasts. In winter, sailboats need to be taken out of the lakes, which freeze over. The typical boathouse is a closed shed, solely designed for the purpose of sheltering a boat. The client expressed his wish to use the structure in multiple ways, so we came up with a design which accommodates two functions. In winter the structure functions as a boathouse in which a sailboat can be winched out of the water. In summer it’s converted into a terrace above the water, creating a sheltered seating area in the evening sun. One of the walls consists of components that can be lowered by hand, using a simple pulley system. The lowered boundary segments bridge the docking space and form a terrace.

Together with the client we decided to use only bio-based materials. Ecological insulation panels were embedded into the framework, a system whose the timber comes from local dutch forests and was treated with an ecological substance capable of increasing durability. These features allow the whole house to be easily taken apart in the future.

In the film, we wanted to capture how the clients use the structure. It was shot in spring, when the sailboat was lowered into the water and the boathouse was converted into a sheltered terrace, celebrating the start of a new sailing season.