Excerpt: Creek Forest House by Van Bergen Kolpa Architects is designed as a rough wooden sculpture in the woods, merging the house with its surroundings. Located at the end of a laar in the Muiderbos, the home is embraced by woodland and a winding creek. Large windows and carved terraces connect inside and outside, while an irregular rhythm of grayed wooden slats forms a natural skin that fully includes nature.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] The Muiderbos is located on the southern edge of the Duin district in Almere. In this watery forest area, thirty homes are being built on free plots that are grouped into ‘laren’, natural open spaces in the forest.
Kreekbos House is located at the end of a laar. The house is embraced on three sides by woodland and a winding creek. The ambition is to merge the house with its surroundings. The house is designed as a rough wooden sculpture in the woods from which large windows, terraces and entrance areas have been carved.
An irregular rhythm of grayed wooden slats forms the skin of the house. The forest side of the house is maximally oriented to the surrounding nature through large horizontal and vertical windows. The laar side is more closed with narrow vertical windows for views of the surroundings.
On the ground floor of the house there is an elongated living space to which two terraces are connected. A small terrace in the morning sun and a large terrace under a slatted canopy in the afternoon and evening sun. The bedrooms on the first floor can be reached via a loft located on the facade.
The house is fully inclusive of nature. With nest boxes behind the facade where the woodpecker competes with the blue tit, with bats behind the sun blinds and with foxes at the edge of the forest.
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