GAAGA: Stripe House

Dutch architecture studio GAAGA has recently completed a single family house in Leiden, The Netherlands. The Stripe House takes its name from a series of horizontal stripes carved into the façade. The exterior walls are made tangible and appealing by these horizontal grooves, which amount to 7,000 meters of craftsmanship: the stripes are handmade and carved into a semi-hardened plaster by using several moulds.

The house is located in a new urban planning area which allows house-owners to freely develop their dwellings. Despite its limited size, the plot is not entirely built on, with one quarter harbouring a small enclosed garden, in what the architects deem "a soft transition from public to private space as well as a distance to neighbouring houses."

Composed of three floors — all similar in size but diverse in program — the house harbours an office space and patio in the ground floor, the kitchen, living and dining space in the first floor, and two bedrooms and a bathroom in the upper floor. The Stripe House achieves striking sustainability scores in several energy performance and environmental index calculations and labels.

A large void along the north façade — determined by the architects as the focal point in the house — connects the two upper floors and spatially zones the kitchen area. A large window at the top offers an abundance of natural light as well as offering a view of the sky. The architects sought to have all openings frame interesting views. On the first floor, three windows form a triptych, showing different scenes representing three specific side of the house: the park on the east side, the neighbouring houses on the west, and the sky on the north.

GAAGA: Stripe House
Architects: GAAGA
Team: Esther Stevelink and Arie Bergsma
Completion: 2012
Contractors: Verbeij Bouw, Boskoop
Plasterwork: Mulder Afbouw - Maarten Mulder
Structural Engineering: IMD Raadgevende Ingenieurs BV,  Rotterdam
Energy performance and building physics: GAAGA — Arie Bergsma
Photos: Marcel van der Burg
Paintings: Marion van Egmond, Emmy Stevelink-Willemsen