Project X

Behind the somewhat mysterious name ‘Project X’, hides the design of René van Zuuk and his family’s residence. The villa with a small office space is located right next to the architect’s former residence Psyche in Almere’s The Fantasy district, an area for experimental housing. Because the old house serves as his office since 2004, it occurred that the 2 plots could be consolidated into one garden. The garden area is optimized by leaving only the width of a parking space between Project X and its neighbouring house. From an urban point of view 3 major considerations were important: the box-shaped appearance of all the Fantasy dwellings, the fixed building line and the pattern of alternating building heights. Placing the lower storey half below ground level resulted in House X being lower than the adjacent dwellings, thus fitting in the height sequence. The distance to the water is reduced, creating a sense of living along the waterfront despite the rather modest size of the canal.