A tough and industrial interior, yet warm to the touch. With the interior of a spacious penthouse and underlying apartment in the former Jewish school in the center of Amsterdam, interior designer Cris van Amsterdam makes a clear design statement. He succeeded in translating the residents' wishes into an interior with allure, in which openness & security, rough & soft and robust & refined come together perfectly and in which the character of the school is sublimely preserved. The use of raw materials such as concrete, wood and steel makes an important contribution to this.
With great passion and expertise, Van Amsterdam designs interiors for homes, hotels, restaurants, offices and stores in which character, atmosphere and functionality are paramount. The interior in the former school is a striking example of this.
"This project really has everything: space, light and great views," he says. "Running the full length of the penthouse is a beautiful corridor with two staircases, stylishly finished with steel harmonica doors. The staircase is lined with travertine, with wooden blocks now serving as stair treads. On the long cement walls I had figurative Inca patterns applied, bringing together character and warmth from the very first moment."
In the penthouse itself, Van Amsterdam - in addition to the materialization - paid particular attention to the layout. Because how do you make a space of 430m² and with ceiling heights of up to 3.8 meters yet intimate?
"I defined several living areas and added elements such as a fireplace and free-standing bar furniture, which optically divide the space. Without affecting the beautiful and long sightlines in the penthouse," he says.
"In addition, the old beam structure was preserved. Between the kitchen and the studio, I added a steel frame with slim profiles and glass fills, combined with a steel pivot door that extends from floor to ceiling."
Double steel pivot doors were also used between the living room and study and between the hall and gym of the apartment below. "The doors are made of hot-rolled (brut) steel, which is finished with an oil. This allows the steel to retain its purity. The welds are not sanded away, but rather are cherished and form an essential part of the look and feel."
What also distinguishes the pivot doors is the application of kickboards that give the doors toughness, but also a slender appearance. To create the right ratio of closed and open surfaces, Van Amsterdam applied the golden section.
"By focusing on the human scale in the tessellation, an organic and logical tessellation was created." The doors were produced by Laska Metaal. To anchor the doors, Van Amsterdam used FritsJurgens' pivot systems for the first time. "The switch to a different type of hinge was quite exciting," he says. "Yet it worked out perfectly. There was no need to open the floor for installation, and the quality and flexibility of the system are excellent. For example, you can adjust to the millimeter how the door closes and falls. I am also enormously pleased with the 90° opening, which allows the door to make spatial impact even when open. I wasn't used to that and it helps to connect the different rooms."
FritsJurgens' innovative, invisible and maintenance-free hinge is already integrated into the pivot door at the door manufacturer's factory. "Architects and end users have a choice of a standard System One hinge (installation depth: 40 mm) or a self-closing System M+ hinge (installation depth: 8 mm)," says project manager Jeroen Iemhoff. "In the penthouse and apartment, our System M+ hinge was chosen, which is distinguished by adjustable closing damping (soft close) and hydraulic opening damping. This ensures elegant door movement and significantly reduces the risk of fingers getting caught between the door. In addition, the adjacent wall is protected regardless of how much force the door is opened with."
FritsJurgens systems are suitable for doors up to 500 kilograms, he says. "For mounting, only a 40 x 80 mm floor and ceiling plate need to be attached. Whereas the ceiling plate is fastened with regular screws, for the floor plate two 8 mm holes are sufficient. This also makes the system excellent for installation in combination with underfloor heating."
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