A bed room incorporating a bathtub and a window bench is 1 of a number of multipurpose spaces architect Ulli Heckmann made when renovating this compact apartment in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Heckmann and his companion, the designer Nienke Bongers, purchased the condominium in the Delfshaven neighbourhood in 2020 with the goal of refurbishing it to go well with their own tastes.

The 100-square-metre residence is spread across the floor floor and basement of a brick apartment developing dating from 1935 that stretches along a dike on the river Schie.

Past renovations in the 1980s had stripped absent all of the interior’s authentic functions, so the couple made the decision to entirely intestine the spaces and rebuild them applying a contemporary and very affordable product palette.

The present layout did not make the greatest use of the backyard garden accessibility, so Heckmann moved the bedrooms upstairs and established a significant living space down below with direct entry to the outside.

“The primary downstairs system showed one particular room dealing with the backyard garden and 1 to the avenue, which was very gloomy and dim,” the architect advised Dezeen.

“Given that the new downstairs is fundamentally mono-orientated, an open structure with the kitchen area cupboard as a area divider appeared the most effective remedy in terms of house with an solution for privateness.”

The mainly open up-plan configuration produces a place for cooking, feeding on and socialising that gets a lot of daylight from the significant windows at a person close.

Freestanding cupboards screen a compact private place that Heckmann explained can be used for “looking through a reserve, inviting good friends to keep in excess of or simply just drying the laundry devoid of placing it in the center of the dwelling area.”

All over the house, built-in storage assists to optimise and organise place, allowing the interior to be utilized in distinctive methods at distinctive instances. Illustrations contain a hidden desk in the children’s bedroom and a window bench in the major bedroom.

“Most of the rooms are not constrained to only a single objective throughout the day and night time,” mentioned Heckmann, “which will help immensely for the use of the area – especially as a spouse and children.”

Amsterdam condominium block functions cupboard bedrooms

The structure of the upper floor is more compartmentalised than the basement level nevertheless, a entire-peak mirrored doorway at the close of the corridor can be left open up to ensure the areas experience connected.

The two bedrooms at possibly stop of the plan are divided by a stroll-in wardrobe and a shower place concealed powering cabinet-like doorways.

In addition to the mattress and window bench, the key bedroom has a bathtub established on wooden blocks that can be screened off working with a curtain.

“The need to have to generate multifunctional spaces is a person of the good reasons why we made a decision to have the bathtub in the bed room,” Heckmann described. “Also, we rather like that it results in being an object in our everyday life in its place of hiding it away.”

The pair had wished to use all-natural resources where by achievable to wholly revamp the interior, but the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic brought on prices to soar and subsequent lockdowns made commissioning professional trades significantly a lot more complicated.

Heckmann and Bongers therefore developed and crafted most of the furnishings on their own, utilizing plywood or MDF that they stained or dyed to give the materials a a lot more exclusive end.

The bedroom shelf and the corridor cupboards are designed from eucalyptus plywood tinted with an earl-grey combination, though the bedhead is MDF with a hardwax complete.

Lime plaster was utilised on the partitions all through the condominium. The downstairs areas ended up still left uncooked and all-natural, whilst the bed room has inexperienced pigment added to give it a subtle trace of colour.

For the kitchen area, Heckmann utilized MDF boards with oak veneer and a countertop with a dim Forbo linoleum surface. The cabinet below the stairs attributes an oak frame encompassing polycarbonate panels, although the staircase podium is made from painted MDF.

Ulli Heckmann done his Diploma experiments at the Technological College of Darmstadt, Germany, in 2006 and labored for several a long time for agencies in Germany and France, including Maison Edouard François.

He launched his architecture and design studio in Paris in 2013 and now is effective on projects throughout Europe, ranging from item and inside design and style to non-public housing and architectural competitions.

Other new Rotterdam jobs featured on Dezeen incorporate a floating cross-laminated timber business office and a multi-faceted auditorium built applying laptop or computer modelling.

The images is by Ulli Heckmann unless normally mentioned.