A Timeless Transformation
This is a fully realised project, one of the most complete in my portfolio. The bungalow was transformed from scratch, with every element designed as a coherent whole: architecture, interior, terrace and garden. The inspiration came from Puglia, its materials, its light and the way life flows between inside and outside. The design attracted the right buyers immediately and led to a swift sale, as confirmed by the selling agent.
A Timeless Transformation: From 1960s Bungalow to Contemporary Biophilic Living
Once a modest and dated bungalow from the 1960s, this home was completely reimagined from the ground up. The brief was ambitious: a future-proof, light-filled home that feels deeply connected to its surroundings, inside and out.
The design was inspired by twenty years of travelling to and living with Puglia in mind. Travertine floors, warm oak, natural stone and whitewashed walls bring that southern sensibility to a Dutch climate, using materials chosen for both their beauty and their suitability for the Netherlands. The result is a home that feels calm, grounded and timeless, where every decision was made in relation to the whole.
Original bungalow from the sixties.
Layout of the design
The brief was clear and ambitious. The owners wanted a large open-plan kitchen and dining area, a space built around cooking together and long evenings at the table. A pantry with serious storage capacity. At the front, a quieter TV lounge and reading room as a retreat from the main living space. A 30 m2 covered terrace at the back, with provisions for an outdoor kitchen. Two bedrooms: a master suite with en-suite bathroom, sauna and wall-to-wall wardrobe, and a guest bedroom with its own bathroom and freestanding bath. Two home offices, one of them fully self-contained with a private entrance, kitchenette and toilet. Throughout: natural materials, neutral tones and as much connection to the outdoors as possible.
Design note
Throughout the house, I made a deliberate choice to have all French doors open inward rather than outward, which is unusual in the Netherlands. This allowed me to install built-in roller shutters on the outside, which can be set to a ventilation position.
The result is that doors can remain open day and night, particularly in summer, creating a natural flow of air through the house without the need for mechanical cooling.It is a small decision that most people never notice, but one that shapes how the house feels to live in every single day.
Materials & Coherence
One of the earliest decisions in this project was to work with a very limited palette of materials and apply them consistently throughout the entire house. The cross-cut travertine floor runs from the entrance through every room, with underfloor heating beneath.
All walls, ceilings, doors and built-in cabinetry are finished in RAL 9010, a white that occasionally gets dismissed in design circles as obvious or unimaginative. I disagree. In the Dutch climate, with its cool, diffused light, it still is a neutral white that genuinely brings warmth to a space.
The oak detailing, in the wardrobe, the small bathroom, the pantry and the home office, is Unilin Master Oak, a material indistinguishable from real oak veneer, but fully colourfast, scratch-resistant and made from 100% recycled material.
The glass doors and the inward-opening French doors return in every part of the house. Restraint in material choice is what gives the home its coherence.
The Kitchen
The kitchen is the heart of this home, and it was designed to feel that way. A rounded island in Dekton stone anchors the space — soft in form, generous in use. The natural stone backsplash brings warmth and texture, a quiet reference to the materials I had long associated with Puglia. Matte white cabinetry in RAL 9010 and cross-cut travertine tiles keep the palette calm and grounded. A skylight above fills the space with natural light throughout the day, shifting across the stone and the curves, making the space feel different at every hour.
The kitchen has a sliding door. Behind it, the house reveals a different kind of generosity.
The Pantry
A home that looks this considered only works if the parts that don’t show are equally well resolved. The pantry was designed as the engine room of the house, generous, practical and completely thought through.
Full-height storage runs the entire right-hand wall.
A Liebherr side-by-side fridge-freezer, a wine fridge, a butcher’s block trolley and a deep stainless steel sink with built-in water softener for the entire house, all have their place.
There are no windows here, but a daylight LED panel overhead makes the room feel bright and pleasant to work in, a small detail that makes a real difference. From this room, the kitchen stays calm.
The Dining Area
The round dining table was a deliberate choice, it sets the tone for how this room is meant to be used. The owners love to cook with friends and linger at the table, and the space was designed around that. Light comes in through the French doors and the side window, making the dining area feel connected to the garden at every hour of the day. The jute rug underneath grounds the space and softens the travertine floor. It seats six comfortably, which was exactly what they had in mind.
The Master Bedroom
The master bedroom was designed around a simple daily rhythm. The French doors open directly onto the pool, positioned deliberately, so that starting the morning with a swim is the most natural thing in the world. Coming back inside, the room offers stillness. Behind the wardrobe wall lies the en-suite with sauna, making the bedroom a quiet connector between water, heat and rest.
The wardrobe itself runs the full width of the wall, handle-less white panels with open niches in warm oak, seamlessly integrated, so that even storage becomes part of the calm. A sliding door closes off the bathroom without breaking the lines of the room.
The large French doors, framed by sheer, floor-to-ceiling curtains, seamlessly connect the indoor space to the outdoor pool area, inviting in abundant natural light.
Master ensuite
The en-suite was designed as an extension of the bedroom’s calm, a place to begin and end the day with intention. The shower corner is finished in beton ciré, raw and warm at the same time. The sauna offers both a traditional and an infrared option, so it adapts to how you feel on any given day. A Villeroy & Boch double vanity complete the space, with enough room to move through the morning routine without rush.
Bathing in light
The second bathroom is anchored by a freestanding bath from Albion Baths, handmade to order in England. A skylight positioned directly above fills the space with natural light, making it a room that invites stillness rather than efficiency. It serves both the guest bedroom and the owners themselves, depending on the day.
Office space
Both owners work from home, and that was a given from the start of the brief. The two offices were designed to feel like a natural part of the house — not afterthoughts, but rooms with the same care and material quality as the rest.
The larger office has its own entrance, a kitchenette and a separate toilet, making it fully self-contained for client visits or focused work days. At its centre stands a solid oak desk — large by design, because the owner simply needed the space to think and work at scale. Custom cabinetry in lacquered oak veneer lines the walls, providing generous storage without visual noise.
Home Office with facilities & seperate entrance
Small home office
The smaller office is quieter in character, lit from above by a skylight that keeps the room bright without distraction. A place to concentrate and be creative.
Entrance Hall
Built-in wardrobe
The entrance sets the tone for everything that follows. The travertine floor continues from outside, the walls are the same RAL 9010 as every other room, and the glass doors on the left and right, custom-made to align precisely with the skirting boards, open onto both the living space and the small office. A full built-in wardrobe provides the storage that a bungalow always needs more of.
The bedroom door at the far end opens to a view of the garden. Nothing announces itself here. It simply feels right from the moment you walk in.
Garden & Outdoor
The outdoor space was designed as a continuation of the house, not as a separate project, but as the same thought carried outside.
At the front, the brief was practical and quietly elegant. The house sits slightly elevated, so the approach needed to feel considered from the moment you arrive. Evergreen structure was key: clipped buxus balls frame the entrance steps, and on either side, cloud-pruned Osmanthus hedges provide a permanent green backdrop through every season. Generous gravel allows space for multiple cars and easy manoeuvring, a detail that matters more than it sounds when you live in a house of this size.
The covered terrace was positioned deliberately at a right angle to the kitchen rather than as a straight extension, creating privacy and shelter from the wind.
The same brick, the same beam structure, the same palette as the house, it reads as one building, not an addition. Travertine continues underfoot from inside. The wooden chandelier above the outdoor dining table echoes the one in the kitchen.
The garden behind has a conscious duality. On one side, a swimming pool runs along a gravel terrace, clean lines, structured planting, a space for summer mornings and long afternoons.
Behind the terrace with dining area, the garden opens into something wilder: a deep planted border of perennials and shrubs that comes into its own in the warmer months, but is equally considered in winter. When you sit inside and look through the French doors on a grey January day, you look out onto that border, and beyond it, through to the old municipal orchard where horses graze. That view was not accidental.
“Selling the bungalow designed by Brigitte Filippini was a remarkable experience. The thoughtful architecture and distinctive design immediately attracted the right buyers and led to a swift sale. The stylish kitchen island with its soft curves and the natural stone backdrop perfectly balanced aesthetics and functionality. The combination of minimalism, biophilic design, and warm, earthy tones created a serene and inviting atmosphere that truly resonated with buyers.
A home not just to admire, but to experience”
