Funen Residence, Amsterdam Residential Properties, Netherlands Residence, Holland Architecture
Funen Residence, Amsterdam
Netherlands Residential Properties – new Dutch houses design by NL Architects
21 Oct 2014
Funen Residence – Ten Dutch Houses
Design: NL Architects
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
These ten houses are part of a masterplan for 500 dwellings and a park by the Architecten Cie, called ‘Het Funen, Hidden Delights’.
The triangular site is located between the historic center and the recently redeveloped harbor area in the east of Amsterdam, a former parking lot for towed cars.
Along the east and the south side a ‘wall’ containing over 300 apartments and office spaces shields the site from the noise of the adjacent railroad. Inside this semi open block a loose grid is set up, containing 16 smaller housing blocks positioned in a park. These ‘Hidden Delights’ vary in height from 9 to 18 meters. A shift from the public to the private has taken place. The urban plan including the park is initiated and commissioned -traditionally operations directed by the City- and developed and build by one single company, IBC Vastgoed.
The maintenance of the park will be handled by a private firm, not by the city, but the park will remain publicly accessible. There are three almost square blocks that measure 30.5 by 27.7 meters and should contain 2.5 stories. It was obligatory to build the first two stories in alignment; the third should be 50% building and 50% roof terrace/garden. In our block the volume is distributed evenly over the ten houses; each is allocated 633 cubic meters. The houses are organized according to a typology known as back to back housing. They will be accessed from an aisle in the middle of the block. This “mini-canyon” rids the facades of the obligatory storage spaces and technical facilities that formally have to be accessible from the public domain.
The front doors are positioned in the back; the houses are turned inside out. By placing the ‘intestines’ like water and gas meters, hallways and stairs in the darker zones of the apartments, the facades can open up to the light and to the view, to where the park is. Three other buildings with a slightly smaller footprint, but considerably higher (18m), rise up next to the block. By interpreting the given 2.5 floors as 2 + ½ story as in Being John Malkovich we could make a ‘clean’ start without formal determination; a block of 6 + 1.5 = 7.5 meters high.
To create space within the masterplan this volume is deformed and redistributed, pushed away as much as possible from the adjacent volumes. Within the orthogonal grid a diagonal vista opens up. The design tool deployed for this operation is the slight rotation of the isle, orienting it onto two open spaces between the blocks, instead of two ‘blind’ walls and as such providing a public shortcut. Point of reference is the given 633 m³ per dwelling. While all houses are at the same time stretched and compressed, either in height or in length, they still maintain this original volume. Although some features of the typology remain, all houses are individual and unique reaching from one-and-a-half to four stories, from 120 to 160sqm.
All houses are different but part of a larger whole; they are one. The amplitude of the building now varies from 5 to 15 meters, but overall the average is still the required 7.5 meters. In the process the standard building bay as an organizational tool of construction became ‘elastic’.
Funen Residence – Building Information
Design: 1999 / 2006
Completion: 2009
NL Architects: Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse, Mark Linnemann
Collaborators: Caro Baumann, Jennifer Petersen, Niels Petersen, Holger Schurk,
Misa Shibukawa, Rolf Touzimsky
Client: IBC Vastgoed / Heijmans
Structural engineers: Ingenieursbureau Zonneveld bv
Mechanical engineers: Sweegers en de Bruin bv
Building Physics: Cauberg Huygen
Contractor: IBC Woningbouw Amersfoort bv
Re-design: 2006
Project Architect: Gerbrand van Oostveen
Collaborators: Jung Hwa Cho, Chris Collaris, Florent le Core, Gert Jan Machiels
Client: Heijmans Vastgoed bv
Structural engineers: Berkhout Tros Bouwadviseurs
Mechanical engineers: Nieman Adviesburo
Contractor: Heijmans Bouw Almere
Photographs: Raoul Kramer
Funen Residence, Amsterdam images / information from NL Architects
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, westetrn Europe
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