Ruud Visser Architects : Une maison dans une église

A Rotterdam aux Pays-Bas, l’agence Ruud Visser Architects a réaménagé une ancienne église datant des années 30 en maison d’habitation pour un couple avec deux enfants. Donnant sur une rivière, le bâtiment était utilisé depuis les années 60 comme entrepôt et garage. Dans ce projet, les architectes ont cherché à créer la maison "dans" l’église et non pas de transformer l’église en maison.

Il est donc possible pour les occupants de déambuler autour de l’habitation tout en étant dans l’église dont les zones les plus emblématiques ont été conservées. Les parois s’ouvrent sur la rivière, offrant de nombreuses perspectives et créant un tampon entre l’église et les zones fonctionnelles de cette maison.

Sur ce projet, l’agence Ruud Visser Architects précise :

"On the river in Rotterdam, is a wooden church from 1930. The building has not functioned as a church since the 1960s, and had been used as a storage space and garage. The church was completely covered with aluminum sheeting and transformed into a storage company. Until a family with two children, bought the church in order to live.

Instead of simply transforming the church into a house with 12 bedrooms, we have a ‘normal’ house created as a separate object placed in the church. You can truly walk around the house while you are ‘in’ the church. The last aisle of the church, the transept is completely open. The front and side, allowed practical use, as much as possible to its original state.

On the back-side of the original church was the choir. A smaller and lower volume than the actual church. With its back facade directly situated on the bank of the river De Rotte. The original volume of the choir is replaced by a modern volume, with the same measurements but much shorter and with the back facade completely out of glass. The formerly ‘transept’ of the church (cross-ship) is laid open now. And is designed as an immense void, where the whole original church can be seen. The new glass-façade opens the church to the river and gives a magnificent view off the landscape. The transept now functions as a buffer between the outside and the private house."

Photographies : René de Wit 

Pour en savoir plus, visitez le site de Ruud Visser Architects. 

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