Description

Urban context

This residential complex is located in Lootsbuurt, a district of Amsterdam that
consists almost entirely of workers’ housing from the nineteenth century. This
area is characterized by the closed perimeter block construction typical of
Amsterdam, with long, outstretched proportions. Ten buildings in such a block
that were in poor condition were replaced by a new building, which was supposed
to be integrated into the historical street facade as inconspicuously as
possible. This residential building with north-south orientation thus interprets
a classical theme of the European perimeter block principle: forming an urban
street facade on one side and a communal courtyard on the other.

Ground-floor zone

Eight of the nine units on the ground floor are accessed directly from the
sidewalk, with no special entrance zone on the street side, each through its own
front door. Separated from urban public space by a gate, a passageway leads
pedestrians to the courtyard, from which all of the other apartments on the
upper floors are accessed via a branching system of steps, terraces, and
galleries. The volume of the building thus springs back and forth several times
and creates a mix of private and semipublic spatial situations.

Building structure

This slablike construction with underground parking garage develops over six
floors and houses thirty-four apartments of fifteen different types. They range
from 75 to 115 square meters, with some units designed as maisonettes. The
complex stands out for its varied play with different entrance situations, forms
of access, and private and communal open spaces, thereby creating diverse
spatial transitions. Units on the third and fourth floors are accessed via an
exterior corridor on the south side; on the fifth floor the gallery shifts to
the north side. The fifth and sixth floors are designed as penthouses that
recede behind the line of the eaves.

Facade

The uniformly articulated perforated facade of anthracite-colored clinker fits in
naturally with the look of the rest of the street. An ornamental railing
inserted into the slightly molded jamb of the window openings unifies the
appearance of the facade of this bourgeois-looking residential building and
marks the explicit boundary between private living and urban public space. On
the courtyard side, by contrast, a playful landscape of terraces and access
galleries forms different spatial zones by means of projections and
indentations, thus encouraging a lively, community-oriented living
environment.

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Originally published in: Ulrike Wietzorrek, Housing+: On Thresholds, Transitions, and Transparencies, Birkhäuser, 2014.