Waterland House by Chris Collaris Architects
Situated less than ten minutes from Amsterdam, on an old dike along the Markermeer lake, is a small village in the municipality of Waterland called Uitdam.
Chris Collaris Architects is an architecture and interior design practice based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Chris Collaris is a registered architect, formerly working at the architectural offices of René van Zuuk, NL Architects and Paul de Ruiter. The studio is fully operational since 2013.
As a compact team with significant architectural and building experience, we have worked on a large variety of houses with diverse private clients. In the first years, the workfield has been mainly concentrated within the Netherlands. Currently, new projects have been delivered or are being started up the world over. To discover and serve a greater part of the world is one of our biggest aims for the next years. Our first Priority of course is to maintain the highest standards and quality for all of our clients and users of the architecture we design and build. We aim to bring the future closer through designing and building innovative architecture, making the seemingly impossible possible, and offering unexpected and pioneering solutions. To continue to grow as a consistent team in building architecture, you need to think outside the box and break the mould by challenging traditional processes. It means you need to be energetic and connect all the parties involved in the process right from the beginning, in order to get access to the real needs of the client.
The power of building architecture lies in the extent to which it can meet the real needs of end users, clients, and the environment. This can only be achieved by listening closely to their wishes and through intensive collaboration. Encouraging interaction, knowledge exchange, and mutual inspiration enriches architecture and leads to the creation of buildings that guarantee an overall sense of well-being for their users. Such buildings act, as it were, as an energy source for people. However, these buildings cannot become reality without serious budget monitoring and clear agreements; it is the task of all committed team members to effectively steer towards the desired result.
Intelligent buildings that have a real impact on society are those that energize, inspire, create a sense of well-being and stimulate productivity. Their vitalizing properties lead to the creation of new information and improve performances. Intelligent buildings also interact with the most important elements in the designated environment. The direction of the sun and the positioning of the building within its environment is one principal example. There are numerous ways of gaining architectural benefits from the sun that have a positive impact on people’s health, such as the light it produces. Secondary to this is the actual energy it gives which can be used to produce electricity. On the other hand, canopies can being used to protect against the sun to prevent for too much heat production are examples of simple and clever solutions in sustainable energy design. The links between daylight, warmth, energy, and building sustainability are clear, but a building can only be conceived as a clever building when it is able to position itself as cooperative yet independent towards these environmental influences in order to meet the satisfaction of the users.
We believe that human ingenuity and creativity can solve both current and future global problems. In our minds, this means that we as humans have the capacity and therefore the responsibility to make the world a better place. This belief is the primary motivation of our work. Basing what we do on the knowledge that architecture serves people and humanity, we act and conduct business with the utmost concern for corporate social responsibility.
LOCATION: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
LEARN MORE: chriscollaris.nl
Situated less than ten minutes from Amsterdam, on an old dike along the Markermeer lake, is a small village in the municipality of Waterland called Uitdam.
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