The team at Rotterdam-based design firm 24H is the creative force behind this elegant new 12-story “Housing Hatert” tower in the Dutch city of Nijmegen. The building houses 72 apartments, as well as a healthcare center and a public square on the ground level, and is wrapped in a series of beautiful aluminum bands that pop out of the warm wooden facade. And the protruding curved corners of the bands were inspired by the alternating layering effect found in flower petals: “We had a flower in mind,” says Boris Zeisser of 24H. “The balconies were designed to look like white petals and an overall organic shape was intended to evoke the image of a white rose.” The translucent nature of flower petals led the team to perforate the aluminum bands to draw more light into the apartments as well as to maintain the view of the city for those sitting inside. For more info on the firm’s work be sure to visit their website at 24H-architecture.com (although I must say, I have no idea how a design firm responsible for a building as gorgeous as this could produce a website this bad). Photos by Jeroen Musch.
