Dutch architects Shift ripped out the walls of this central Rotterdam townhouse and replaced them with a three-storey bookshelf.

The bookshelf, which is 10 metres wide and nine metres high, replaces the load-bearing wall in the middle of the house.

Contained in the shelves are kitchen appliances, wardobes, a walk-in closet and even a doll's house in the children's bedroom.

The steel stairs have been fitted close against the shelves to make all the books easily accessible.

The house is situated on a block of dilapidated nineteenth century buildings which was bought in its entirety by a developer to be restored. Each house was stripped bare, leaving the new homeowners free to make their own changes inside.

"What used to happen is that the municipality would tear the houses down, but they have beautiful facades, so it's a good thing to try to keep them, " said Shift architect Oana Rades. "It's been a really successful strategy and it means a lot of people won't move out of the city to the suburbs now."

We previously featured another Rotterdam project by Shift – a monolothic pavilion with sliding glass windows.

Photographs are by René de Wit and Jeroen Musch.

Here's some more information from the architects:

Vertical Loft by Shift architecture urbanism – extreme makeover of a pre-war city dwelling in the centre of Rotterdam.

This so called do-it-yourself dwelling in the centre of Rotterdam is part of a bold experiment initiated by the municipality to revitalise dilapidated urban areas.

Run-down pre-war dwellings are renovated on the outside and brought back to their monumental appearance, while the interiors are stripped bare.

The empty shell dwellings are primarily bought by enthusiastic young people who transform them according to their specific needs, desires and budgets.

Real estate developers have picked up the initiative and a new demand driven market of urban housing has been generated in recent years.

Site plan

The result is a growing number of contemporary custom-made dream houses within the uniform old fabric of the traditional nineteenth and early twentieth century city.

Ground floor plan

Our dream was to create a vertical loft: a house without walls where all three floors are stitched together into one continuous space. The interior of the new house is organized by one oversized closet that connects all floors. It functions as a storage device for the whole house. This piece of XXL-furniture, measuring 10 meters in length and 9 meters in height, replaces the load bearing middle wall of the original house.

First floor plan

Its modular system integrates kitchen appliances, bookshelves, wardrobe, and a walk in closet. The introduction of a central void reinforces the presence of the closet. The void enables diagonal views through the house in which the closet is experienced in its full height. It also makes daylight penetrate far into the 14 meter deep house. Two steel stairs in the void make the bookshelves accessible and create a vertical circulation along and through the closet.

Second floor plan

The extreme makeover of the house is combined with a selective preservation of elements of the old casco. Industrial materials such as the phenol coated multiplex of the closet and the polyurethane flooring are balanced by the longitudinal brick wall that is left bare, the stained glass and the original doors that are restored and re-used. The roughness of the wall, full with traces of the past, tells stories about the continuous makeovers that the house has undergone in the last hundred years.

Section

Text: Shift architecture urbanism
Photography: René de Wit, Jeroen Musch
Shift architecture urbanism
www.shifta.nl
[email protected]

Elevation

Design: Shift architecture urbanism, Rotterdam
Project architects: Oana Rades and Harm Timmermans
Contractor: JWK Bouwteam, Gerrit Kooiker, Ijzendoorn
Construction: B2CO, Richard Fielt, Ede
Installations: Installatietechniek Fred vd Pol & Zn., Ede
Floors: DRT, Oss
Fixed furniture: Gerrit Kooiker, Gaby van den Boom