Brainchild of the 2012Architecten practice, the two-storey detached family house, Villa Welpeloo, in the Dutch city of Enschede is located in the Roombeek neighbourhood, a former industrial district fast being turned into a residential area. Villa Welpeloo stands out in its context of traditional brick buildings with pitched roofs for its staggered, overlapping volumes and envelope of wood cladding pierced by extensive glazed lights. The programme is also singular for the innovative choice to use only demolition materials and manufacturing residues, all sourced within 15 kilometres of site. The building’s frame has been made from metal profiles taken from a nearby textile factory. The wood cladding was made from cable drums, the wood undergoing heat treatment to make it more weather resistant. Most of the window glazing was glass waste from a glass factory in the area, while the outer wall insulation panels were fabricated with polystyrene residues bought from a nearby camper manufacturer. The interiors of the villa, whose owners are art collectors, are luminously white with large expanses of walls - ideal to hang and offset the many works of art. In fact the house is essentially a backdrop for the owner’s large collection. While most of the furniture and fittings echo the recycling and re-use philosophy of the building, there are some new pieces. In the bathroom for instance. Here the dominant white of the other environments becomes ubiquitous black of floors and wall tiles providing a striking contrast with the white Duravit ceramic sanitary ware. Duravit was an obvious choice, not only for its sleek clean designs but also on account of the company’s excellent track record of sustainable manufacturing and long product life. The designers chose the rectangular washbasins of the Architec series by Frank Huster, combining them with Philippe Starck’s recessed bathtub and toilets.
