Amsterdam Townhouse With a Private Jaguar Showroom in the Backyard

Bureau Fraai, an Amsterdam-based architecture firm, was commissioned to solve a specific problem: the owners had two Jaguars and nowhere worthy of keeping them. The solution was a private showroom in the backyard of their Amsterdam townhouse.

Bureau Fraai went to work designing a distinct black structure to house the Jaguar collection. The showroom garage uses an automatic lift to stack the two Jaguars, and is visible through a steel-framed window. From the living room of the main house, the British Racing Green Jaguar XJS sits in that frame like a painting. That was the brief, and Bureau Fraai met it precisely.

The distinction matters. Bureau Fraai designed the Black Gems showroom with an automatic car lift that stacks both Jaguars vertically. When the roof panel opens and the lift descends, the lower Jaguar (a British Racing Green Jaguar XJS) is presented at ground level, framed in the large steel-plate window that dominates the facade. That window is the architecture. Everything else serves it.

The custom-designed grill panel on the exterior is worth a close look. Bureau Fraai fabricated it in steel, referencing the classic Jaguar grille from the brand's history, with the leaping Jaguar badge centered in the panel. It's an architectural nod to the cars inside, and it's the kind of detail that separates a serious commission from a generic garage build.

At night, with the XJS lit inside the glowing opening, the grill reads as shadow and chrome. The whole structure behaves like a lantern.

The architect's diagram shows the lift mechanism in three stages: the roof panel opens, the lift rises to present the upper car, or descends to ground level to display the lower. Both Jaguars can be accessed independently. The showroom holds two cars in the footprint of one, without compromise.

The Black Gems project is actually two commissions in one. Along with the backyard showroom, Bureau Fraai also designed a matching black roof extension on the main townhouse. The extension resolves the height difference between neighboring rooflines with a single bold black volume, topped with two large steel-framed windows that look out over the street and rooftop terrace respectively.

Inside, the roof extension is warm and light: exposed timber rafters, custom built-in shelving, a window that extends into a desk on the street side, a bench on the garden side. The black shell and the warm interior work as a deliberate contrast, a concept we've seen across other architect design garages.

Seen together, the showroom and the roof extension read as a single design language imposed on two different problems. Both are black. Both use large steel-framed windows to frame what's inside. Both contrast a hard exterior with something unexpected and warm within, a similar design approach seen in another architect designed garage built for a car collection, where the interior restraint amplifies what's happening outside.

The Black Gems project has become one of Bureau Fraai's most recognized works. It's easy to see why. In a dense Amsterdam neighborhood where every square meter is spoken for, they found room for a car collection, a living space, and an idea.