The Bow Tie

TypologyShop and maisonette transformation

LocationNieuwendam, Amsterdam

StatusBuilt

ProgramFour-storey family home

PhotographyJordi Huisman

The Bow Tie is a project by Broekhof Schuit Architecten in Nieuwendam, Amsterdam. Typology: Shop and maisonette transformation. Status: Built. Photography: Jordi Huisman.

A four-storey family home tied together by one precise spatial knot.

An outdated shop and owner's maisonette near the Nieuwendammerdijk is transformed into a generous family house. Removing the former office and garage makes room for a garden and a compact two-level extension that reconnects all four floors. The clients named the house after the shape of that extension.

The Bow Tie in numbers: 4 storeys reconnected, 2 levels in the new extension and 1 three-dimensional knot.

4storeys reconnected

2levels in the new extension

1three-dimensional knot

Opening the plot

The office and garage extensions were removed to bring back the garden. Because this plot permits a walk-out basement, the lowest floor could become a bright living level rather than a leftover service space. The new extension occupies less ground while creating a much stronger relationship between house and landscape.

The rear of the building before transformation — Existing condition

Exploded axonometric showing all four floors and the new extension — The complete spatial composition

The Den as social heart

The client imagined a Den as the centre of family life. It connects directly to the garden and gives access to a television nook, guest bed and bathroom, while the darkest basement zones contain installations, storage and laundry. Above it, the raised dining area forms a distinct central room. The kitchen remains aligned with street life and the original shop window, which becomes the smallest gallery of Amsterdam Noord. A reading platform catches the evening sun, and the extension carries a green roof and a balcony for one of the children's rooms.

The two-level garden facade seen straight on — Garden facade

The Den opening directly to the garden — The Den at garden level

The double-height interior beneath the angled skylight — Void and skylight

Four planes, one knot

A kink in the plot pushes the extension inward. Four angled facade planes turn that constraint into the project identity: one plane frames the dike and harbour, another folds inward to form the entrance canopy, and the skylight continues the same geometry. Together they tie garden, Den, dining room and reading platform into one spatial knot.

Exploded diagram of the four angled facade planes — Four facade planes

Axonometric of the new garden facade and green roof — New facade, roof and garden

Flush glazing set into vertical timber cladding — Timber and flush glass

Colour as confetti

The client, a trained graphic designer, arrived with the palette: hard blue, light blue, red and pale yellow. The blue and red were already in the building, in the stained glass above the old shop window. White walls and grey floors form a calm background, and colour appears as individual objects rather than a decorative layer: the red kitchen, the yellow folding door, furniture and art become pieces of confetti distributed through the house.