Het Kulkje Vlieland | Borren Staalenhoef Architecten

’t Kulkje, Vlieland, a brief explanation

For a big family, their friends and relatives, a comfortable and modern holiday home was built. The house fits smoothly in its environment although it is located on top of a sand dune in the open landscape of this Dutch Island. The house needed to be spacious and practical besides being nice. Multiple fixed interior elements were integrated in the design. Consequently a spatial holiday home was realized in which landscape, house and interior are optimally connected.

Between the 30s and the 70s around 200 holiday homes were built on this part of the Island. Since then it was not allowed any more to add new houses. The local policy is focused on maintaining the existing character of this area; small scale housing in an open landscape without any fences around private properties. The zoning plans don’t offer real possibilities for extending existing houses. However, a part of these houses don’t meet current requirements and are such light, that demolishing and building something new is the most rational option. This was also ‘t Kulkje’s destiny: built in the 70’s, demolished in 2016.

BSa designed a holiday home which is both remarkable and unremarkable. The primary feature is the high roof. An unequally facetted roof which fits by form, material and color in the, by weather circumstances, shaped dune landscape.

Beneath the roof, three stories can be found; on the attic and in the basement there are bedrooms and bathrooms, in between there’s one spacious living room with the kitchen and a covered terrace.

In the basement, sunken in the dunes, there is a covered outside space with the entrance. Daylight reaches the bedrooms via this space. For passers-by the basement stays completely hidden, the bedrooms still offer a view on the dunes.

While one third of the house can’t be seen, the ground floor is very open. This is one open space surrounded by glass and offers therefor a panoramic view on the dune landscape. Since the roof line varies in height, the roof gives a delicate shelter on the ground floor. The centrally located stairways, open to the basement and closed to the attic connects both literally and figuratively.

The basement, constructed from insolated concrete, is the bases for the solid wooden construction on top. The roof elements, 18 cm laminated pinewood, rest on the laminated wooden façade posts. The wooden roof is constructed as an upside-down ship romp. The attic’s floor is suspended in the roof and rests on the steel stability construction around the central staircase. The complete wooden construction is prefabricated and was mounted on location within 2 days. In this exposed landscape this was for sure a real challenge.

After completion, the dune landscape was recovered. Weather conditions will establish a seamless connection between house and landscape.

Borren Staalenhoef Architecten  Amsterdam - Leeuwarden, 2017