Crystal Houses: MVRDV Puts a Modern Spin on Traditional Design
You know what they say about people who live in glass houses?they shouldn’t throw stones. If you’re able to take this originally-metaphorical advice literally, you might consider the advantages of building with glass bricks. This visually-striking construction medium is sturdy, allows designers to get very creative with color schemes, and can add plenty of light to a room without compromising its privacy. Take, for instance, the “Crystal Houses” building by Dutch architects MVRDV. This facade gives Amsterdam?s high-end shopping street, PC Hooftstraat, a distinct character without detracting from its historical aesthetic. In this design, new meets and embraces old.
As its name suggests, the Crystal Houses facade is constructed almost entirely from glass. It incorporates glass bricks, glass window frames, and even glass architraves (i.e. the molded frames around doorways)! The entire building, which was completed in 2016, boasts an impressive 620 square meters of retail space in addition to 220 square meters of housing. We’re not sure how expensive it is to live on PC Hooftstraat, but we suspect that such a prime residential location might be just a little out of most people’s price range.
When designing Crystal Houses, MVRDV’s two biggest priorities were preserving the building’s history and creating an authentic-looking brick facade. The architects explain, “The near full-glass facade mimics the original design, down t...
Source:
dornob
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http://dornob.com/design/architecture/
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