Villa 1 / Powerhouse Company

Villa 1 / Powerhouse Company

Architects: Powerhouse Company
Location: Netherlands

Villa 1 was the first villa commissioned to Powerhouse Company since its founding in May 2005.

The forest, like most of the Dutch landscape, is man made. Mostly Douglas Pines were planted there in the 1950s for the production of straight stems that could then be used as beams. The trees became mature enough to be harvested in the 1970s, paradoxically just when it became immoral to cut trees. The landscape thus turned from industrial to being natural. Now the site falls under the local “building-in-nature” regulations, which include a number of restrictions, among which height limitations for the gutter lines and volumetric restrictions for what could be build above ground. Since the spatial needs of the house called for at least twice the volume allowed by the regulations, we designed it upside-down: all day functions above ground and all bedrooms below, but with ample daylight access.