Architecture: zU-studio, Pierre Wizman & Javier Zubiria
Photo credits: Frans Parthesius
Although the penthouse on two levels is located on one of the most famous streets in Amsterdam, near the Vondelpark, the view that strikes and surprises any visitor is that of the sky. A contemplative atmosphere obtained by means of an open plan, a sort of nave with an archetypal form, and by a clarity filled with light and calm, generated by many windows that fully exploit the perimeter walls and the roof.
The path of ‘ascent’ from the lower level, which contains the bedrooms (and bathroom, including a Scandinavian sauna), extends in a central stairwell that is actually conceived as a system of steps of different sizes, almost a furnishing block in wood, placed diagonally to connect the two levels with a livable, functional space. Steps that are wide like benches, or narrow and geometric, like the ones set into the base of the large element in black metal that functions as a bookcase and a perspective wing at the top of the stairs.
The level below the sky boasts an enormous and very comfortable living area. In the kitchen zone the compact block of the custom table in statuary marble establishes a dialogue at a distance with the fireplace, in the same material, which warms the living area.
Every furnishing element, with the exception of the modular sofa, has been carefully designed and made to measure, to enhance the spaces and the proportions, the full and empty zones, the volumes and visual connections inside this luminous domestic landscape.
