Great news: lyongo architecture celebrates its 25th anniversary this year! We highlight this anniversary by, among other things, sharing some of our projects from the last 25 years every month. We will kick off with our office in Willemstad, which was a project that we designed back in 1999.
This green building has been the office of our architectural firm in Otrobanda Willemstad, Curacao. The building has a protected heritage status and is owned by Stichting Monumentenzorg Curacao. The buildings are part of a protected monumental townscape. The building is identical to the adjacent structure on Smithplein 12. Both are old workers houses. From a historical architectural stand point, they both are interesting as an example of a dwelling with a traditional design and gable roof.
In 1999 we made a design for a private client (Jan Teeuwen, who later worked as a daily supervisor for our company) for the restoration of these two buildings (ed). These plans were never executed. Years later, the houses were sold to Monumentenzorg Curacao. They asked me to update my design so that it could finally be realized. During the restoration, as much attention as possible was paid to preserve original details and the historic elements. Ultimately, the restoration and renovation was realized in 2017!
In 2022 we moved our offices to this location and we use the red house as an apartment when the colleagues from the Amsterdam office are in Curacao. It remains an ongoing project because we still want to furnish the courtyard – between the two buildings – with greenery.
Interior of the apartment by Sacha Liedorp
