CENTER OF THE WORLD

  • Private
  • Amsterdam
  • NL
  • 1993

The project concerns the conversion of a monumental canal house into two individual apartments.

The design manifests by strictly architectural means the actual relationship between the individual-, but publicly opened up by the penetration of different media-, communication- and other public devices, space of the dwelling and the collective-, but privatized by legal- and moral restrictions, surrounding urban space.Inside the monumental skin a cross is laid out. The cross defines the spatial and geographic position of the dwelling within the urban context. The cross conforms to the distorted monumental skin, renewing the architectural meaning and definition of existing windows, doors, etc.. The cross is materialized and architecturally manifested on every floor; the monumental skin remains unaffected, conforming anonymously to the urban surroundings. The cross defines the dwelling as the center of the world.