This former farmhouse has been reimagined from the inside out. Once closer in spirit to a barn, the existing structure was extended with a generous, light-filled living space to form a modern home for a family of three. Old and new work together in a seamless dialogue, balancing a solid, tactile interior with expansive views across the canal and distant horizon.
The architectural idea is immediately legible indoors: the original house is preserved as a solid, tactile core, while a fully glazed living space unfolds along its western edge. Moving through the interior becomes a carefully choreographed journey of compression and release. Entry through the traditional front door leads into the oak-panelled hallway of the original farmhouse, where ceiling heights and material weight create an intimate, almost introspective atmosphere. This sense of enclosure heightens the impact of what follows.
As one passes through the core of the house, the space opens dramatically into the extension—a 23-metre-long, 5-metre-wide glass volume that functions as living room, dining area and kitchen. Here, daylight floods the interior from floor to ceiling, dissolving the boundary between inside and outside and drawing the canal and distant horizon deep into the house. The transition from the dark, timber-lined interior to this transparent, expansive space is both deliberate and visceral.
The roofline reinforces this seamless connection. The low-sloped roof of the glass extension meets that of the original farmhouse at a subtle angle, so the two volumes appear to merge rather than collide. From the inside, this creates a continuous ceiling plane that gently guides the eye outward, enhancing the feeling of openness without diminishing the presence of the original structure.
Throughout the interior, custom details reward closer inspection. Built-in elements, carefully resolved junctions and tactile materials soften the scale of the large spaces and lend the house a sense of warmth and playfulness. As Bjarne Mastenbroek notes, “Architecture should be fun; it is, after all, for living.” This philosophy is evident everywhere inside the home, where light, proportion and material come together to create spaces that are both generous and deeply personal.
The result is an interior that balances solidity and transparency, tradition and openness—one that reveals the true scope of the transformation only once you step inside.
