DAB Studio Adds Contemporary Touches to Dutch Home from Amsterdam School Period
2024.07.24
An Ettore Sottsass gridded feature wall and a sculptural green ladder characterise this 1920s Dutch house, which interiors firm DAB Studio designed to reference the Amsterdam School.
Called Collectors Home, the dwelling is defined by the intricate brickwork and stained glass windows typical of the Amsterdam School – a movement from 1910 to 1920 that paid equal attention to the architecture and interior design of a building.
Local firm DAB Studio renovated the Amsterdam house's interiors to reflect its roots while adding contemporary touches.
"The building dates from around 1929 and was designed by Eduard Cuypers," studio co-founder Lotte Bruns told Dezeen.
"His studio was considered the origin of the Amsterdam School because the ringleaders of this style, Michel de Klerk, Joan van der Mey and Piet Kramer, were all formed in his office," she added.
The team enlarged and rearranged the living room's neutral-hued fireplace, which has smooth, subtle corners – "a recognisable reference to the Amsterdam School," according to Bruns.
Dedesigned to be deliberately off-centre, the fireplace mouth was decorated with modernist black marble discs that echo the room's rounded sconce lights, positioned on a marbled mahogany feature wall.
Although the wall design was originally created by Memphis Group founder Sottsass for Alpi in the 1980s, the gridded arrangement of the wood recalls the "ladder windows" common to Amsterdam School architecture, explained Bruns.
A recognisable Wassily Chair by Bauhaus designer Marcel Breuer sits opposite a sculptural, low-slung coffee table and a deep red Gubi chaise lounge, first created in 1951.
"The clients' love of both modernism and postmodernism was the starting point for our research," said Bruns.
DAB Studio made use of the home's bay window by inserting a lumpy, vintage fruit-picking ladder into the space – a formerly utilitarian object from 1890, painted green and transformed into art for the project.
"The semi-circular window was a big challenge because it was too small to be functional and too big to leave empty," considered Bruns.
"The ladder's colour complements the stained glass and the green background of the grass and trees in the garden," she added.
Art features throughout the home, including in the timber-clad kitchen, where a red copper table lamp with a shaggy, gold-hued fringe illuminates the sleek worktop.
Connected to the open-plan living room, the dining space was finished with a long, dark wood table, mustard-coloured silk curtains and bespoke glass ceiling panels.
"The interior has a free, creative spirit in which each element can stand on its own and be seen as art," concluded Bruns.
Founded in 2016 by Lotte and her partner Dennis Antonio Bruns, DAB Studio previously transformed the kitchen floors and ceilings of a family home in Zwaag, the Netherlands, with two types of wood.
Also based in Amsterdam, Studio Modijefsky created a contemporary family home inside a local dijkhuis – a traditional Dutch dwelling set next to a dyke.
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▪ Source: Dezeen｜https://www.dezeen.com/2024/07/22/dab-studio-dutch-home-amsterdam-school/
▪ Words: Jane Englefield
▪ Photography Credit: ©Alice Mesguich
