A garden on the roof, a home on the canal

A small schark that lives large

Tante Bep is a schark, the flat, box-like houseboat that belongs to the Amsterdam canals like the gabled houses on the quay. From the street she shows a timber facade, burgundy window frames and a roof planted with sedum around three skylights: a small garden that softens the view from the houses above and keeps the boat cool in summer. Inside, the challenge was to make a modest footprint feel like a real home.

Levels instead of walls

The answer was to work in levels rather than rooms. The living area sits on warm oak boards, a few oak steps lead up to a raised deck, and a glass balustrade keeps every part of the boat in view of the next. Long, low windows in burgundy frames run along the hull at eye level when seated, framing the canal like a moving painting, while bamboo blinds filter the light without closing the boat off.

A kitchen at the water's edge

On the lower level, a white kitchen island with an oak worktop and a flush induction hob stands right beside tall glazed doors onto the water. The bathroom keeps to the same calm palette, with white tiles, a black-and-white checkerboard floor and a walk-in glass shower. It is a boat that proves good design is not a matter of square metres, but of how every one of them is used.