What a city! A city rich in contrasts: young and yet traditional, exciting and relaxed, active and unhurried, cosmopolitan and romantic. Amsterdam is simply strewn with canals and is built on about 100 islands. Just the right place for a distinctive, urban villa with an impressive level of detailing.

Elegant house fronts are huddled close together on the artificial sand island of Ijburg in the east of Amsterdam, located on the banks of the “grote Rieteiland”. This is where pasel.künzel architects, based in Amsterdam, built an understated urban villa with a vision all of its own. The clever residential solution has a distinctive look: a vertical tower housing the bedrooms complements the villa’s horizontal living area. The tower offering impressive views contains the master bedroom, as well as children’s and guest bedrooms. Featuring a 12-metre-long glazed façade, the living area on the ground floor opens out onto the waterside garden. In the spacious rooms, the architects play with opposites: walls and floors are resplendent in clear white, whilst the flush-fitting window and door frames create a deliberate contrast in black. The bathroom adopts the juxtaposition of contrasts with white ceramics set against black tiles. The soft forms of the Duravit Starck 3 toilet, designed by Philippe Starck, enter into a symbiosis with the strictly rectangular Vero washbasin.

The distinctive façade made of horizontal boards of white-grey Douglas fir underlines the compelling power of simple elegance and highlights the architectural concept. A small courtyard cut into the living area forms an inviting threshold between public and private. The sustainable energy supply that utilises a heat pump with heat recovery system completes the striking design. The condition of the soil in this man-made area is such that the ground itself can be used as an energy resource. The entire building has underfloor heating, which provides warmth in winter and coolness in summer.