Studio apartment

Studio Apartment Rozenstraat, Jordaan Amsterdam.

The Studio Apartment in the Jordaan has been from the start a showcase for earth building. Here started the development of adobe plastering in a new city apartment and in many ways a variety of techniques were developed and applied. As a showcase house many visitors took notice and experienced the possibilities of improving an environment. Here we give an account of its developments.

Wall segment between windows with rounded corners.

Studio space with storage behind mirrors as sliding doors.

Many interior elements were recycled from a former studio space such as the sliding mirrors of the overhead cabinets and canopy above the table with storage and light elements.

Corner with platform and radiator cover;
Same corner with cushions and hammock.

The walls of the studio space are plastered with adobe, earth with chopped straw. This was the first time that a ready mix from ClayTech Germany was applied in the Netherlands. This application was experimental to be used unfinished as it is meant as a base coat. Typical are the use of rounded corners of the plaster and trimmings. The radiator is covered with the same adobe plaster on reed mats. This is thought out to improve the interior climate from circulating dusty warm air to radiating warmth with regulated air humidity as earth does.

In the ceiling 4 hooks are fixed for hanging hammocks crossways. The planter is made with bricks from a former building along a platform.

The bookcase is build of 10 different, separate cross-shaped elements that can be placed in a variety of configurations. Here the elements are placed going around the corners.

Ceiling above the staircase with drawings of Mayan lintels.

The walls of the hallway are plastered with an experimental mixture of different grains of sand, marble powder, clay and red earth from an Ibiza cave. The lower parts of the walls going down the staircase are covered with a lime finish to make the surface stronger.

Kitchen counter:
Cove and
Corner of seating area of kitchen.

The kitchen is plastered with a one-centimetre thick base coat of adobe like the studio space and finished with an earth plaster mixed on site. This mixture contained sand, marble powder, clay and hairs of pigs as a reinforcement. Additional cellulose, wallpaper glue, was added which turned out to be a successful component to make the surface smooth and dust free.
The cove was build with a wood frame and covered with reed mats. This then was plastered with basecoat and finish like the rest of the kitchen space. The corners were rounded of like the studio space.

The bedroom on the ground floor level is neighbouring the garden and forms the ultimate in effect and quality. To begin with the layer of plaster is placed as a separate skin off the wall. Reed mats are put on wooden laths and cover walls and ceiling. The corners are rounded with willow branches with straw behind it (see photo far right). Also light fixtures are woven with willow branches and are part of the walls.

The mats, willow branches and straw are plastered with a thick layer of adobe as a base coat and finished with a variety of mixtures, colours and textures.

At the foot of the wall heading the bed a straw bale bench has been build. The bales are stabilized against the wall with a frame tightly fixed on the wall with screw thread. The bales are placed on adobe bricks allowing for ventilation and to keep them dry. The top of the bales is covered with a weaving of willow branches sloping down creating a rounding more than other corners of the room. The roundness is filled with straw and plastered with adobe.

The walls of the bedroom are finished with different textures and colors of earth plaster. One section is build up with triangles within thin wood strips. The inspiration for this composition came from Huitchole Indian art. Each earth color is mixed on site with a variety of sand, marble powder and clay and applied in a variety of shades. Similar colors are used outside the triangular frames and make abstract forms.

The triangular forms repeat in floor sections within an overall wooden floor of chestnut. As a floor insulation hemp is used under the floorboards and mixed with the adobe.

Since the corners of the space are rounded and straight lines lack to define conventional visual space, the senses rely on a combination of textures, abstract forms and triangular patterns to create surrealist space awareness. The effect of the different flood- and indirect light enhances this experience.

Ceiling

The colourful decorations on floor, walls and ceiling are not painted. It's all plastered with a mixture of sand and clay.