'Between 8 and 10' explores the possibilities of slipping a small hotel into a historically rich site in Amsterdam on Weteringschans between the Paradiso rock venue cum cultural centre and an existing villa.

A preliminary study of the Singelgracht zone in Amsterdam mapped this part of the city with an in-depth analysis of its typology, history and morphology. At the centre of this zone is Weteringschans, a street with an empty lot between numbers 8 and 10. Parallel to Weteringschans, the waters of Singelgracht trace the former town ramparts around the old centre of Amsterdam. When these ramparts were torn down at the beginning of the 19th century it freed a broad strip of land in the town. Several dedicated buildings including the Rijksmuseum gave substance to this strip. Later, a swish residential area, the 'museum quarter', took its place alongside these.

At the end of the 19th century a string of six villas made their appearance between Singelgracht and Weteringschans. Two of these were replaced in the 1970s with offices of similar proportions. It was this new-build project that set the cat among the pigeons. Before long, the pair of office blocks had been dubbed Pepper and Salt and together they marked the onset of what was felt to be a new wave of ugliness in architecture. Architect Frans van Gool had a tough time of it. In the period around 1979 when it was under construction, the project was a favourite target of columnists in newspapers and magazines. Dutch writer Gerrit Komrij managed to crank things up a few notches and assembled a crowd 1200 strong in Paradiso to protest against the project.

The challenge facing Van Gool is a classic task in architecture. Architects have long been racking their brains over how to relate to the city as it stands. This issue is key to the present project, namely how to build in today's historic city. In projecting a small hotel on the empty plot between Weteringschans numbers 8 and 10, it addresses a task comparable to the one facing Van Gool. It is a latterday addition to the sequence of four 19th-century villas and the 'pepper and salt' offices of the 1980s.

The new villa houses a hotel with a handful of luxury rooms. Here on this precious patch of urban land a hotel can measure up to the public nature of Museumkwartier as well as accord with the villa typology of Weteringschans.

A three-pronged study underpins the final-year project. In parallel with the design for a hotel, it further examines the Amsterdam villa typology, dwelling in the 19th century and the evolution of the window. The study in its final form reads as an anthology of these subjects. On studying the documentation of 19th-century villas it emerged that the drawings often consisted of nothing more than an elevation and a floor plan of the bel-étage. These floor plans are informed by an arrangement of the different dwelling components into separate rooms en suite. This strategy returns in the hotel design. Here vestibule, hall, drawing room and hotel room are stitched together directly, without a corridor. In section the 19th-century villa is marked by a basic stacking of storeys with the stair as lone vertical element. In the design, however, the stair fulfils a more seminal role. As there are no corridors, each landing accesses the hotel rooms creating a split-level section. This section is expressed in the exterior and the silhouette of the rooms on the plot can be read off in the fanciful shape. Inside, the hotel presents itself in an irregular arrangement of windows in the frontage, rendering indirectly visible what goes on inside. Unlike Frans van Gool's office blocks, the hotel facades are set square to the street. Instead of being a grid of windows, the frontage is more of a face turned to the city.

The typical home life of prosperous citizens in the 19th century was not just reflected in terms of plan, elevation and section. Often the upholstery was defining for the interior. Wallpaper, wainscoting, lots of curtains and thick carpets exuded the distinctive atmosphere of the well-to-do home. In analogy to this, the hotel's interior is designed as a temporary home for the guests. Fine and enduring materials such as wood, stone and bronze create a tranquil, domestic ambience. A transition from stone to wood reflects the gradual withdrawal of guests into the intimacy of their own hotel room. Plan, section, facade, window and interior are the building blocks from the study that resonate in this design. All told, the urban villa between Weteringschans 8 and 10 is an appropriate final phase.

Place of education: TU Eindhoven | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Bernard Colenbrander, Pieter van Wesemael, Christian Rapp