A very spacious feeling
Located on the beautiful Dutch island of Texel, Holiday Home is unlike any other residential villa. Instead of dividing the house into different spaces by walls, Orange Architects decided to divide spaces according to the specific use at any moment in time. Escaping from routine is quite literally built-in. Holiday Home represents a different approach to space. By day, during a holiday, people tend to spend more time together and there’s less need for private spaces. With this in mind this studio optimised the house by maximising all spaces inside, allowing most of them to accommodate two functions. By day the house transforms into an open, fluid space.
Spaces extend even further, through large windows and opened doors, into the surroundings. By night, wooden panels in the hall can be closed by turning them 90 degrees and the continuous space breaks up into separate spaces. The bed becomes a full-size bedroom, while the hidden shower and sink turn into an en-suite bathroom. By allowing the interior to be transformed, the space inside is optimised, keeping it compact and efficient, avoiding unused rooms during the daytime.
Holiday Home evokes a very spacious feeling within a relatively compact volume. Skylights in the bedroom, library, and attic area; window frames as high as five meters to the garden; light-coloured birch interior paneling, and movable lamellas all enhance the rudimentary feeling of well-proportioned spaces, poetic lighting, and essential materialisation. The project was designed using multiple sustainable solutions: almost invisible solar panels on the roof, natural ventilation, timber structure and a concrete floor that acts as a thermal mass, a highly insulated roof, facades, and windows. And it’s all-electric; for cooking, warm water, and heating, no fossil fuels are needed.
The weather definitely won’t destroy your holiday mood, since the house can be enjoyed in different weather conditions. The lamellas on the terrace can be adjusted if it’s windy, the veranda is to be enjoyed when it’s too sunny, raindrops hitting the roof lights put on a real show, and on a clear night, the stars do the same.
