Parkrand

‘Buurt 9’ forms part of the garden cities west of Amsterdam. It consists of 174 standard small housing units, lo­cated in three L-shaped buildings and positioned next to a small park. The new design relocates the housing into one compact but impressive volume and regains more space for the park.

The program includes five towers that are sandwiched between a deck and a series of rooftop penthouses. This creates an open and airy block, and offers different views, from all directions. The semi-public park is raised: a semi-public balcony that overlooks the park. This area becomes a central space for the inhabitants, an outdoor ‘liv­ing room’. This idea is accentuated by the use of soft furniture, decorative walls, ceiling and floor finishes, plants, and chandeliers. The towers are positioned in such a way that they do not block views from the neighbourhood to the park. They also give all of the apartments in the tower a view to the park and an orientation to the sun. This is achieved by perforating the roof plate in three places. This design is repeated in the bottom plate, forming two courtyards that offer light, view and access to the apartments on the first level.