• Design: Harmen van de Wal with Smahan Amrach, Frank Schnakenberg, Johan Löberg
• Cliënt: Fam. Kempff-Oosterhuis
• Constructor: Pieters Bouwtechniek
• Contractor garden: Marco van der Hoeven Hoveniers
• Contractor serre( sun cell): Klief, Rotterdam
• Contractor table: Constructa, Carlo van Nierop, Rotterdam
• Design KO-couch: Brat-Krill
• Start design: oktober 2004
• Realisation: may 2006
• Area Garden: 100m2
• Building costs: € 50.000,00
• Photo’s: Ximena Davalos

“If we want to enjoy nature, we will take our car and drive to a forest”.
This motto was symptomatical for the program of demands our cliënts defined for their garden. They refused to treat their backyard as a tiny piece of nature, but rather as the ideal opportunity to enjoy sun and rain in their own secluded world. The only plant a bamboo bush which will grow approximately three meters high, blocking the view from the neighboring houses.

Thus the KO Black Garden has been designed as the extension of the living room; a living room convertible. The black granite floortiling of the interiour livingroom is prolonged in rough basalt stone, each stone being 5 cm wide and variable in length. The white walls inside are reflected in the milky white, translucent polycarbonate garden fences.
Four independent elements dominate the KO Black Garden; the bamboo, a piece of art by Ad Haring representing the body of on of the clients, a basalt table and a detached serre, the KO sun cell. The last item, a glass box on wheels has the measurements of a large bed. On the long side this box is covered with polycarbonate, forming translucent doors. The short sides of the box as well as the roof are entirely made of structural glazing. Protected by the translucent doors one can lie down looking to the rain coming down from the sky. In summer, when the sun is out, the doors are kept wide open turning the serre into a lounge box.

Tags: 2006, garden, pet architecture, realized