Lifestyle and Knowledge Studio
On Thursday 23 April, mayor Herman Klitsie of the municipality of Oss gave the starting signal for the demolition work so that a new Lifestyle and Knowledge Studio can be built on the current Hendriks Bouw en Ontwikkeling site at Kanaalstraat in Oss. The studio is the result of a different vision about construction, a vision in which the customer – the end user – plays a more central role than ever before. Lambèr Hendriks says, "Buying a house is something that many people only do a few times in their lives. I always like comparing it to car sales, where you are always treated with a great deal of respect when purchasing a new vehicle. It's high time that we started giving the buyers a bit more time and attention, so that's exactly what we're doing with Dome-X."
Hendriks is also opening the Lifestyle and Knowledge Studio to external parties, as a way of gaining inspiration and sharing knowledge with each other about living and space. Schrijvers Elektrotechniek will be putting a home electronics design centre in this studio, and Holland Virtueel will soon be able to show consumers around a virtual model of the homes being built for them.
The idea behind the 'knowledge studio' is for example to help students from colleges and technical universities to brainstorm about topics such as sustainability and energy together with Hendriks and third parties. In addition, it could provide good surroundings for talking with banks and other mortgage lenders about the relationship between higher purchase prices versus lower living costs, and how they might approach this. Dome-X is also a place where a housing corporation, healthcare institution or educational body can come to pick up new ideas.
The name of the lifestyle and knowledge studio, Dome-X, is derived from domus, the Latin word for 'home'. Dome is also all about 'domotics' – a new portmanteau word for domestic electronics, all conceivable types of electronic items that make a house safe, comfortable and energy-efficient. The X is for existence – living – and for all the extras that Hendriks has on offer. And X can equally well represent the X factor, the extra something that adds that little bit more attractiveness and pulling power.