Form, landscape, language

Hotel Elements Terschelling

The hotel is currently under construction and carefully positioned in the building envelop of a former abandoned building. The integration of the new volume into the natural landscape is achieved by creating a head and tail volume, and by patterns, lines and setbacks, breaking the scale.

Brutalist and natural simultaneously
Elements is a robust, brutalist building inspired in material and form by the dunes and the North Sea. The robust material identity is based on Dunehouses I and III previously designed by Marc Koehler Architects on the island. It follows a tradition of building with nature, where sturdy structures harmonize with the surroundings, mirroring the color of beach grass, the sand on the shore, and the green-brown vegetation in the dunes. A sandy pigment has been added to the rough concrete with ‘beach grass prints,’ refining and softening the material both in the interior and exterior. This enhances the experience of nature and the connection between indoors and outdoors. The wooden cladding of Red Cedar softens the concrete and naturally turns gray, echoing the changes in color of beach grass in response to weather conditions. It adds a certain natural liveliness to the facade. The choice of materials and color palette contributes to a concept of ‘barefoot luxury’—raw, rooted in simplicity, and providing the opportunity to walk into nature with bare feet; a unique form of comfort experience.