Marc Koehler Architects: Dune House, a wooden diamond

Dutch architect Marc Koehler brings the sand and the sun of the island of Terschelling into his latest project. Dune House stands out from the landscape, beyond the dunes, to offer those who live in it a breath-taking view of the North Sea.

The starting points for construction of the building were the forces of nature: sun, wind and sea. These are the elements that determined the design of the home, as if they had sculpted it themselves; every material and form is chosen in continuity with the colours and textures of its natural surroundings. The result is an unusual architectural object, a wooden diamond with many different facets, half-buried in the dunes.

Dune House resembles Terschellingon the inside, too: going into the building is like walking around it, for inside and outside are immediately interconnected. Multiple levels only a few steps above and below each other give us the impression we are walking amidst the dunes of an architectural promenade constantly linking different spaces, objects and colours.

This respect for the environment is also reflected in the building methods employed: prefabricated wooden panels designed using BIM software drastically speeded up construction, with intensive use of passive means of preventing overheating, autonomous production of energy with solar panels and the presence of a biomass fireplace: a minimal, ecological wooden diamond.

Francesco Cibati

Location: Terschelling, the Netherlands
Year: 2014
Area: 180 mq
Project: Marc Koehler Architects
Photos: Philip Dujardin

http://marckoehler.nl/

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