Description

Urban context

This imposing ten-story residential structure measures 128 meters in length and
20 in depth and is located on the River Ij, at the end of a pier, immediately
adjacent to two former warehouses that have been converted into residential
buildings. Thanks to its large scale and its appearance, the building evokes
associations of a container ship. The original idea was similar to that of the
Unité d’Habitation – distributing public uses across the entire volume and thus
creating a kind of three-dimensional city inside the building – but it could not
be fully realized.

Ground-floor zone

The large volume is placed on pilotis and raised slightly above the surface of
the water. The gap between the dock and the building can be crossed via bridges,
ramps, and stairs. The main entrance is reached by a broad open stairway, which
leads though the pilotis and the full depth of the building in a passageway
where the entrances to the various parts of the building are located; it
continues to a publicly accessible elevated seaside terrace that looks as if it
had been shoved out of the volume of the building. The nine units on the ground
floor and second floor of the front part of the building have their own front
doors and mailboxes and can be accessed directly from the dock via footbridges
and stairs.

Building structure

The deep volume has 157 condominiums and rental apartments with a wide variety of
layouts: the units were designed with one to three stories, views to one or more
sides, and different open spaces – winter gardens, balconies, terraces, and
patios – in order to satisfy the diverse wishes of a pluralistic society.
Manageable neighborhoods are created by grouping eight to twelve units. Various
access systems – rue intérieurs in the manner of Le Corbusier; multistory, very
wide galleries; footbridges and bridges on the lower stories; and open
passageways on the roof – network all the apartments, the public water terrace,
the harbor, the lobby and restaurant, and the office and commercial units to
create a three-dimensional urban fabric.

Facade

Designed to have an effect from afar, the three-dimensional neighborhood of this
large “complex” is realized in myriad colors and surface materials. The twenty
different colors seen on the facade correspond to the number of apartment types.
The diversity of the living spaces offers an answer to the increasing tendency
to individual lifestyles. The Silodam Residential Building markets social
pluralism as an architectonic image. From inside the apartments there are
generous panorama views over the city and harbor.

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