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Ijburg blok 23 & 24

AmsterdamArchitekten Cie., Dick van Gameren, VMX (blok 23) Meyer en Van Schooten, Claus en Kaan, ANA (blok 24)By

The suburban district IJburg, to the east of Amsterdam, con­ sists of seven artificial islands. One of them, the biggest, is Haveneiland. The blocks on Haveneiland West were developed by syndicates of clients and developers/builders. Each block has a coordinating architect who, in conjunction with the other offices, is responsible for the development. Because this strategy proved to be expensive and time-consuming, the later development of Haveneiland East worked with a single project architect per block. After all, the economic recession of the early 21st century called for drastic changes to the development of Haveneiland West.

The urban design for IJburg was drawn up by Felix Claus, Frits van Dongen and Ton Schaap. It has filled Haveneiland with a grid of streets, framing rectangular blocks measuring 70 to 90 m in width by 175 m in length. The grid of blocks and streets is bisected by a canal.

One key feature of the footprint area is that the blocks’ enclosed courtyard serves as a public space. In fact, the lay­ out of the internal spaces was paramount in the design brief. In other words, the blocks had to be opened up and the inner courtyards connected with the adjacent streets. The prescribed housing density was so high that it necessitated construction on part of the blocks’ internal spaces. This has led to a range of different public spaces within a single block. The original plan to close the internal spaces in the evening met with opposition from developers who anticipated management problems.

Apart from the elevations along IJburglaan, all blocks are framed by a 1.2-m strip, which eases the transition from public (the street) to private (the home) for the residents. Parking is largely restricted to private property, which has resulted almost everywhere in underground car parks. A notable exception is the VMX-designed block, which has a car lift…

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Schuttersveld

DelftGeurst & Schulze architectenBy

Schuttersveld forms part of the Doelen area in Delft’s historic town centre, which in the past few years has undergone a transformation from an unexceptional, second-rate neighbour­ hood to a luxury, much sought-after location. The area super­ visor is architect Fons Verheijen. The residential development discussed here was designed by Geurst & Schulze architecten. Schuttersveld consists of eight small-scale residential buildings, realized in the internal space of an existing block, which used to accommodate a primary school. The former playground survives as one of the two squares built within the block…

 

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Monnikhof

GroningenS333 Architecture + ArchitectureBy

In 1994, S333 won the Europan 3 competition for the so-called Circus site to the north of Groningen city centre. The office was then commissioned to design a master plan for the entire Circus, Boden and Gasfabriek site. The city of Groningen wanted ‘openness’ for this 14-hectare CiBoGa site through a balance between development and landscape. An urban design with routes and sight lines was already on the table and stipulated a car-free zone. In order to meet these preconditions, S333 introduced the so-called schotsen concept, which defined a schots as a compact building framing a semi-public space. The plan consists of a total of 13 schotsen that form a transitional zone between the city centre and the 19th-century suburbs. The site was badly contaminated by the gas factory and required such deep excavation that it can now accommodate underground car parking…

 

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Zwanenwoud

HeereveenSjoerd SoetersBy

Zwanenwoud forms part of the urban design for ‘Buiten­ plaatsen Skoatterwâld’, east of Heerenveen. The initial phase of this KuiperCompagnons design has been divided into four elongated strips of woodland. A total of some 2,500 homes will be built among these parallel, north-south strips.

Skoatterwâld’s design will comply with a report drawn up in 2005 by the Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research (Ruimte­ lijk Planbureau, or RPb) called ‘Landstad. Rural Living in the Network City’. This report concludes that there is considerable demand for so-called ‘rurban’ residential environments, providing the peace and quiet, green spaces and sense of community offered by a village, along with the cultural and leisure facilities of the city. In his design for Zwanenwoud architect Sjoerd Soeters has interpreted this ‘rurban’ living as a new kind of country estate or country house…

 

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De Rietlanden

AmsterdamvenhoevenCSBy

De Rietlanden in Amsterdam, an ensemble of four tower blocks and a multi-storey car park designed by VenhoevenCS, forms part of the much more comprehensive Rietlanden project in the Eastern Docklands Area. It is dominated by various forms of infrastructure: train, tram, ring road and Piet Hein Tunnel. The residential development forms part of a triangular block, which comprises a strip of private homes along Oostelijke Handelskade to the north and – originally – train tracks to the south…

 

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Mariaplaats

UtrechtBob van Reeth, AWG ArchitectenBy

The site in the centre of Utrecht was long used as a makeshift car park. In the late 1980s the local council earmarked it for the development of new homes. When a competition failed to produce a satisfying result, the council reformulated the design brief. The focus now shifted towards a cultural and historic consciousness; the site’s history was to be central.

The lost Mariakerk, one of the five 11th-century collegiate churches that formed part of the Utrecht cross of churches, was at the centre of a so-called clerical immunity. Walled in and closed off from the outside world, it was a place that housed canons. The immunity was characterized by large plots of land, at the centre of which stood big stone houses of varying heights surrounded by lower servants’ quarters…

 

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Het Pentagon

AmsterdamAldo van Eyck & Theo BoschBy

In 1969, architects Aldo van Eyck and Theo Bosch won the invited competition for the Nieuwmarkt area in Amsterdam. The competition followed fierce arguments between residents and the city council of Amsterdam about the latter’s master plan for the area, which pushed for the formation of a central business district. The original, small-scale inner-city neigh­bour­hood had to make way for large offices and shops, a dual carriage way, one thousand parking spaces and the underground. Living was relocated to the periphery…

 

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De Kasbah

HengeloPiet BlomBy

Inspired by the Jordaan, the neighbourhood in Amsterdam where he grew up, Piet Blom seeks to achieve a mix of life and work in his projects. There should be room not just for homes, but for small businesses and shops as well.

In 1965 Blom published the brochure ‘Wonen als Stedelijk Dak’ (Living as an Urban Roof), his reaction against the mono­ tony of the terraced houses and flats of the time. The study is noteworthy for the idea – later applied in the Kasbah project – that the homes are situated in a closely-packed configuration on the first floor. They form a roof above a communal area that the residents will have to appropriate for themselves. By accommodating urban life on two levels, the ground floor space will be the reserve of the city’s public life. According to Blom it is not up to the architect to determine how that space is used…

 

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Veronesestraat

AmsterdamArchitectenbureau Eduard CuypersBy

In his realized second plan for Amsterdam-Zuid (1905-1917), H.P. Berlage tried to find a balance between the picturesque and the monumental, inspired by Amsterdam’s concentric canals. The monumental system of plan ‘Zuid’ is based on the simplicity of symmetry, structure and linearity, and on a clear hierarchy of streets. The area between Olympiaplein, Beethovenstraat, Apollo­ laan and Stadionkade is symmetrical in relation to Minerva­ laan. This avenue forms the central axis between the unrealized Minervastation to the south (‘the city’s portal’ in Berlage’s view) and a large, monumental building to the north (which eventually became the Hilton Hotel)…

 

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Tuinwijk-Zuid

HaarlemJ.B. van LoghemBy

From the early 20th century onwards, Haarlemmerhout and the more easterly country estate Oosterhout were developed as a residential area. In 1900 landscape architect Leonard A. Springer drew up a master plan modelled on the English garden suburb. It envisioned spacious plots for detached houses, as well as long rows of seried houses with deep back gardens. The seriated development was probably needed to generate bigger land revenues during a downturn in the economy. Housing Association Tuinwijk, which had a social remit, commissioned architect Van Loghem in 1918 to design section plan Tuinwijk-Zuid. It covered the subsidized construction of medium-sized dwellings…