Paul&albert turns dutch front doors into a sculptural cabin

Behind each door: Paul&Albert design front door cabinet

Dutch design duo Paul&Albert created the front door cabinet for the municipality of Assen in Netherlands. The object organizes tools used by the city to communicate and engage citizens, while translating the architectural language of domestic front doors into sculptural cabinet. Rather than designing a conventional storage unit, the project interprets the front door as a symbolic element of the relationship between private households and the public domain. Each door represents a point of entry into a different domestic environment, marking the threshold between individual life and the communal space of the city.

The cabinet is made from components derived from traditional front door elements. Panels, glazing and characteristic door proportions are deconstructed and recomposed to form a new object. The resulting structure looks like two doors that fold into each other, creating the cabinet’s outer shell. This formal approach reflects the variety of residential doors found throughout the city, some restrained, others expressive, while maintaining the recognizable proportions and details associated with domestic entrances.

closed front | all images from Roelof Bos

The municipality of Assen commissioned her design duo Paul&Albert to create a cabinet to house materials and instruments used in public communication and community engagement projects. These tools support dialogue with residents and help structure participatory initiatives within the city. When opened, the interior doors reveal photographic portraits of Assen residents. The images refer to the people who live behind the many front doors throughout the city. For privacy reasons, residents do not appear in published photos of the project.

Within the cabinet, a range of media and communication methods are organized to support interaction with different groups within the community. The system allows the municipality to adapt engagement strategies according to the context of each initiative and the residents involved. Through the combination of symbolic form and functional storage, the Front Door Cabinet functions as both a practical work tool and a physical representation of the relationship between the city administration and the residents of Assen.

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