Sunday Escape -Bolwoningen

The Dutchman Dries Kreijkamp (1937-2014) was plagued by a question: we live on a sphere, we are born out of a sphere, so why do not live in a sphere? He kept thinking about it while in 1964, working to a glass factory, created crystal globes and stared at their round silhouettes, for him the most organic form of life. Two decades later Kreijkamp, architect, industrial designer and sculptor began experimenting with new housing within the round spaces, convinced of its important advantages: the assembly of houses, composed entirely of prefabricated elements, it could be carried out in one day, while a low power consumption and easy maintenance, makes the buildings even highly economical. The opportunity to realize his vision came in 1984, when a special Dutch contribution to experimental housing projects allows him to start the construction of 50 of these spherical structures in the Maaspoort district of Den Bosch (Netherlands). 

Inspired by the architectural styles of traditional cultures, such as clay huts of some African tribes or the igloos of the Eskimos, its Bolwoningen, literally "ball" or "bulb," has a simple scheme in two interdependent parts: a cylindrical base, one storage space via a staircase leads to the second part, a three floors sphere made of fiberglass, interconnected by a spiral staircase. This area, measuring 55 square meters, contains a bedroom, a bathroom, a toilet, a living area and a kitchen. Six round windows allow natural light to brighten the rooms. Kreijkamp died in 2014, he dreamed of developing many other applications related to the project of his homes-ball as customized accessories or prototypes of furniture, but to no avail. The Bolwoningen remain a unique and bizarre project, a group of golf balls or sci-fi construction in the midst of winding paths and tall trees alongside a picturesque Dutch canal.