Double House Case Study

The Double House is located in Wilhelminapark, Utretcht, Netherlands. The MVRDV designed house began the construction for the house in 1995 and was completed by 1997. This is a house that is shared by two separate familes on one single site. The original buyer did not want the entire site, instead found a partner to split the costs and take 1/3 of it. The interior of the Double House has a meandering wall, splitting the apartment complex in two. This has developed an interlocking system for the building to make it feel like there is more space than it appears from the exterior.

The architecture pushes and pulls at each floor, taking space away at one point, then regaining the space on the next floor. This is all done because a straight wall would have created very narrow spaces. The Double House utilizes very large windows, making it appear spacious, and to allow natural light shine throughout. The glass in the facade defines the spacious interior and creates this great sense of transparency. In this case study the objective was to re-create any and everything we can find on the houses assigned that would give us a better understanding as to how they functioned including:

• Floor-plans

• Diagrams

• Section Cuts

• Interior/ Exterior Pictures

• Figure-Ground

• Mass Models

• Space Models