Wedge House
Wedge House is a project by Broekhof Schuit Architecten in Haarlem. Typology: Transformation of a house. Status: Built.
History, energy and colour meet in a seventeenth-century house transformed into an eleven-metre-high internal street.
Built around 1626 on the foundations of a former chapel, the dilapidated mid-terrace house is now a light-filled and adaptable family home. Careful insulation and airtight construction bring it to an A+++ energy label without erasing the historic structure.
Wedge House in numbers: A+++ energy label, 11 m internal height and 2 m width at the narrow end.
A+++energy label
11 minternal height
2 mwidth at the narrow end
A house from 1626
The clients wanted a durable home that could change with family life while preserving the character of the historic building. New insulation, airtightness and a carefully rebuilt roof allow old and new to coexist.
The internal street
At the rear, the wedge-shaped plan narrows to only two metres and was starved of daylight. Opening the floors and facade at this exact point creates a light well and new physical and visual relationships across the full height of the house.
A social ground floor
The ground floor becomes the active heart of the home around a large dining table, with access to a small roof terrace and views towards the mezzanine-like living room. A custom metal stair replaces the weakest floor zone and works as both sculpture and circulation.
Trusses as museum pieces
The poor monumental roof trusses required a new structural and insulated roof. Their historic fragments remain visible against the clean new shell. At the top, an observatory overlooks Haarlem's historic centre.
