Five Villas

The agricultural shed is typical of 'polder landscapes' in Groningen; a sober construction with a pitched roof, the slopes of which reach almost to the base of the building. The outline of these houses by Onix is analogous to that of the traditional barn, with its preference for sloping surfaces over vertical walls. Traces of a contemporary language can be found in the way the conventional form is complicated by cuts and blurrings and by the choice of materials - heterogeneous, but of the same colour - which create continuity between façades and roof, making the whole appear as a unique project. The building thus acquires the appearance of a volume from which pieces have been subtracted in order to increase the possibilities for the use of space by its inhabitants. The oblique passageway containing the entrance separates the residential part from the garage, thereby reducing the bulk of the whole and generating physical and visual contact between surrounding terrain and the landscape.