Tatami House / Julius Taminiau Architects

Architects: Julius Taminiau Architects
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Area: 160.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Norbert Wunderling

Other Participants: Oranje Arkenbouw

Text description provided by the architects. The house is designed by Julius Taminiau Architects and based in a “floating village” within Amsterdam. The budget for this project was very low and therefore it was decided to rationalize the design as much as possible and to make it as clever as possible. The Japanese Tatami size and arrangement was used as an inspiration for this project. A Tatami is a type of mat which is used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms.

There are rules concerning the number of Tatami mats and the layout of the Tatami mats in a room. The proportion of the Tatami is similar to the proportion of a standard sized plywood panel (and a lot of building board materials). We used the Tatami as a grid for the house. The floor-spans are linked to the maximum timber spans (and linked to Tatami). The cladding is also linked to this Tatami grid and is a subtle reference to a fish-scale pattern. The dark matt and glossy surfaces of the panels echo the tone and reflective quality of the water.

The benefit of this total system and strategy is that the proportions of the rooms, cladding, and building materials all relate together and will be well proportioned, the left-overs from materials will be minimized and this will result in using less material and fewer expenses. One of the spaces is double height and has a flexible layout, functioning during the week as an office and in the weekend as a guest room. The 100 square meter rooftop is half filled with solar panels which are concealed by the balustrade.