Project Palazzo Emilio

Designing a penthouse on top of an existing building is a delicate challenge. Palazzo Emilio occupies the entire top floor of a new apartment block in Amsterdam, offering a 300 m² interior connected to a 200 m² patio—an unusually generous footprint for the city. The concept rebalances indoor and outdoor space across the plan: instead of one giant terrace, open-air areas are evenly distributed alongside the living spaces for a more integrated inside–outside experience.

Four broad parallel walls organize the penthouse into strips, creating a series of interior rooms each paired with its own exterior space. Each wall spans the full width of the building and is rendered in a single distinctive material. Within these thick walls lie the “serving” functions—bathrooms, closets, cabinetry—allowing the primary rooms on either side to remain open and uncluttered.

Working within the original building’s constraints proved to be an inspiration rather than a burden. Instead of fighting the inherited structure—massive beams, oversized shafts, awkwardly placed windows, and other quirks—the design chooses to embrace them. These elements sparked new forms and ideas: necessary shafts gave rise to creative geometric solutions, layout clashes were celebrated as character, and even exposed pipes were transformed into contemporary ornaments. Palazzo Emilio turns the limitations of the base building into unique architectural features, resulting in a one-of-a-kind penthouse that feels both rational and rich with surprises.