IJburg is an island of new reclaimed land not far from the center of Amsterdam and is developed as a new suburb of the capital. This house is located on a section called Steigereiland, a part of IJburg where individuals were allowed to build their house according to their own taste.

The simple shape with the rounded corners is a result of an intensive design process in which not only the client and the architect participated but also the contractor. The project is dictated by the tight budget, the strict dimensions of the building envelope and the absence of an urban context. During the periode of design no information was available about the projects of other builders in the neighbourhood. We feared an abundance of different shapes and colours in this free zone. Therefore we designed a serene timber clad object. In the end this abundance did not appear and now our design is rather striking in an environment determined by simple brick boxes.

As a starting point for the design we took the placement of the house: at a streetcorner and perpendicular to a side street.
We decided to locate the main facade of the house towards this street and to provide it with several unusual windows among which a big circular window orientated towards the city where the new inhabitants came from. The elevations along the two streets have few windows for the sake of privacy. Because the family stressed their wish for intimate interior space the corners were rounded.

This work can be seen as an object rather than a piece of architecture that refers to certain building types. By reducing the exterior shape more and more one's attention is directed towards the surface. A rounded shape has no corners. The rough, vertical timber clad outer skin goes on without interruption. The circular window and the rounded corners enhance this feeling of ''objectness'' .