Duurzaam bouwen gaat vaak over vooruitkijken, maar het is misschien wel interessanter om terug te blikken. Met enige regelmaat belichten we duurzame projecten. Dit keer Huis M van Marc Koehler Architects.

House M (220 m²) has been built in Almere Overgooi in 2005, a suburb of Almere, itself a suburban satellite town of Amsterdam. House M is a contemporary response to a changing cultural environment in the Netherlands which is characterized by a growing demand for monumentality, solidity and enclosure as dominant aesthetic values to be expressed in the architecture of the private house.

In response to this, Marc Koehler positioned the house as it were a wall between front and back garden, separating a very introverted street façade from a very extroverted garden façade (on the back of the house). The kitchen, dining room, living room and office space are located on the ground floor in a continuos space which opens-up towards the sunny back garden. On the second floor,  hree intimate bedrooms, storage-space and bathroom are located.

Street side
On the street side, the house appears rather closed and monolitic. Two volumes reach out from this mass in an expressive way, providing the entrance and the garage space, defining the sculptural monumental image of the house as seen from the street, creating an interesnting visual dialogue with the neighbouring houses built in neo-classical style.

Sustainability
In terms of sustainable measures, the design of the house takes passive solar energy into consideration, which maintains interior thermal comfort throughout the sun's daily and annual cycles whilst reducing the requirement for active heating and cooling systems.

Mechanical heat recovery ventilation systems are employed as well in order to maintain air quality, and to recover sufficient heat to dispense with a conventional central heating system.

In 2005, the house was rewarded a nomination for the Almere Architecture Award.

Facts & Figures
Overgooi, Almere, 2005
Client: Marion van Leeuwen
Floor space area - brutto : 230 m²
Construction costs: € 350.000,-
Design: Marc Koehler
Advisers: KKB Heemskerk, Brouwer & kok
Design team: Kasia Heijerman, Filip Bosscher, Dick Kleijn
Construction – Goldewijk
Photographer: Allard van der Hoek

More information: Marc Koehler