Wood and stone studio

LocationAmsterdam
Size14m²
Year2025
StatusCompleted

Set within a compact inner-city rear garden, the project replaces a former shed to create a home studio.

The studio itself is conceived as a stone carapace organised around a single source of light gifted from the garden through an ‘inhabited window’. Framed in timber and lined externally with burgundy-painted steel plates, the window is a box formed around the work desk. Light enters from all sides, a lens to the world, immersing the inhabitant in the dancing shadows of leaves and the sound of rain.

By partially sinking the studio into the ground, the roof becomes an extension of the landscape, preserving the overall amount of outdoor space but shifting it across levels; what is given up as garden is returned as roof terrace. This reframes the house and garden as a sequence of stepping spaces that draw the body deeper into the site.

By partially sinking the studio into the garden, the roof becomes an extension of the landscape, preserving the total outdoor space but shifting it across levels.
The architecture is wrought from exposed, elemental materials. Limestone quarried a few hours' drive from the site is sawn and stacked into rough-hewn block walls, inert and massive.
A deep timber beam spans between the flank walls, a straight-forward gesture that anchors roof, window and wall.
The reddish tones of the wood complement the limestone’s warm undertones, forming a calm, grounded yet tactile atmosphere.
A small ‘underground’ bathroom is carved out of stone.
Built on a modest budget, the project prioritises simplicity, durability and ease of maintenance. A small budget is not a constraint but a form of attention, yielding a small but atmospheric space that extends daily life into the garden, where material qualities and craftsmanship produce a quiet sense of wonder.

Credits

TeamMatt Ball, Annebé Brouwer
Landscape architectsElisabeth van Basten Batenburg & Nicoline van Nispen
ContractorPieter de Boer Bouwonderneming
PhotographerMax Hart Nibbrig

Similar Projects

Space180 The Thames
SpaceLa Milliere
SpaceGstaad
SpaceHighland estate
SpaceFlat-pack housing