Simple Housing
Vijfhuizen, NL
Location: Vijfuizen, NL
Design: 1998
Year: 2003 phase 1
Site Footprint: 10.200 m2
FSI Netto: 0.4
Gross Floor Area: 2.800 m2
Parking: -
Program: Phase 1: 22 dwellings,
circa 90-100 m2, 20 dwellings, circa 125 m2,
Phase 2: 10 dwellings, circa 160-200 m2,
4 tower dwellings, circa 250 m2
Client: Municipality of Haarlemmermeer, Dura Bouw Amsterdam BV
Sustainability: Nieman Adviesbureau
Structural Engineer: Constructie Advies Bureau Steens BV
Associates: Bureau Bouwkunde, Amsterdam
Urban Supervisor: Liesbeth van der Pol
Landscape: Bureau Alle Hosper
Following the competition win in January 1998, followed a commission to design 56 houses adjacent to the village of Vijfhuizen. The project forms the first phase of a large Vinex urban plan for 700 new dwellings that will be constructed on the edge of the existing village over the next 5 years. The density of the housing, the smallness of the plots, and the intense mixture of different cost categories meant that traditional row housing as a starting point proved insufficient to meet this challenge. We needed to re-think traditional front yard versus back yard relationships and how/where the car is allocated. Suburban living qualities with urban density should not be a conflict.
The concept for the design offers an alternative way of living on the so called ‘Vinex’ sites in the Netherlands. To begin with a simple series of houses were designed and systematically located with each other in an innovative way.
Through arranging the housing plots in a ‘regular irregularity’ organization of housing plots, the desired atmosphere of cosy village-like density with a remarkable contemporary openness was created. As a result of this the spaces between the houses become varied, resolving the desire/conflict for privacy and openness through the explorative use of diagonal views from inside to outside.
The houses themselves are conceived as a series of elemental and generic ‘farm-like’ typologies, in which the differentiation of housing types are developed through size. This helped not only in the economics of the project but ensured a sense of community and togetherness. Calmness in teh architecture and consistency in materiality were themes. The elevations are conceived as a wrapping and intertwining of vertically grooved hard wood (Cumaru) siding and ribbed steel plating in equal proportion. Over time, the materials will blend with each other to create a ‘new oneness’.
