Necessity is the mother of invention, and the home of author and artist Helma Bongenaar and her husband Jeroen Alberts is the very definition of this old adage. Built in 1880, their modest Amsterdam townhouse was originally a bar for the local dockers. Helma and Jeroen discovered it 23 years ago, when it was a government-subsidised home for artists to access affordable studio space in the heart of the city. Helma, who was pregnant at the time, fell in love with the building, and, as
