The acute angle
Van Schijndel was fascinated by the opening-out corner in the Rietveld-Schröder House, created by opening both of the corner windows in the dining area on the first floor. For his own home, he invented a variant. The patios have three glass corners in which the corner panels can be opened outwards. This was very simple in two cases, because of the obtuse angles, i.e., angles greater than 90 degrees. The third angle, in the library, is an acute angle, smaller or ‘sharper’ than 90 degrees. In this case, the panels could not simply be opened outwards – they would get in each other’s way.
To overcome this problem, he came up with a double hinge on one of the two doors, so that the double-hinged door can be first pushed a few centimetres to one side. This creates just enough room to allow it to open outwards. After which the second door can be opened without any problem.
The silicone hinge
Van Schijndel was always looking for new applications for materials. For silicone sealant, he thought up an application of using it as a hinge. In six of the interior doors, the cabinet doors in the kitchen, and the square patio windows of the study, the workplace and the bathroom on the ground floor, a continuous layer of silicone sealant is used as an elastic hinge.
Wall colours
The interior of the house has a particular use of colour. It determines the light and therefore the atmosphere in the house. At first glance, however, all the walls and ceilings seem to be a soft white colour. Because very light pastel shades are used, the colours are not explicitly present. They emerge only when two colours come together. The intention here was to achieve, through a combination of light and colour, a warm atmosphere at any time of the day. Light and colour affect each other. Van Schijndel took advantage of this. Through the soft hues on the walls, the light gets a special accent.
The compass direction from which the light enters determined the reflection surface. As the sun rises in the east patio, Van Schijndel wanted to wake up in the morning in the house feeling mildly energised, and so all the walls where the morning sun shines have a soft yellow tone. All the walls where the afternoon sun shines, such as the staircase and landing, are a cool lavender. All the walls where the evening sun shines he made white, grey or green in tone, and so neutral. And all the walls where the sun never shines are done in warm colours, softly pink.
