The “Meerwijk” district in Schalkwijk, built in the 1960s, has been built on the corner of Bernadottelaan and Albert Schweizerlaan. This center is part of the urban design that was made by our office in 2001. The building with retail spaces, including the Vomar supermarket, an underground parking garage with 215 places and 74 apartments, is one of the sub-plans of the community center. The whole has a modern, transparent and friendly character and adapts well to the neighborhood.
| Architects | Ronald Knappers |
| Client(s) | Hoorne b.v. |
Middelsee is the expansion plan on the southwest side of Leeuwarden, based on an urban design by West 8. The Frisian water city serves as a source of inspiration. Commissioned by the smallest housing association in the Netherlands, we have designed a plan for homes arranged around two green courtyards. It forms a small-scale community with plenty of space for encounters, and a robust waterfront with the apartment building as its eye-catcher.
Using simple means, variety is created so that no more than two houses are ever the same. The foundation remains consistent: a compact floor plan, lightly jointed red brickwork, and solid white window frames. We introduce variation through a dormer or a brick roof extension, a roof edge detail, or a distinctive entrance feature. The client’s existing housing stock in Leeuwarden’s city center also served as inspiration — a characteristic working-class neighborhood with abundant greenery.
In our plan, residents meet each other around private stoops and gardens bordered by low hedges, as well as along the wide galleries on the timber façade of the apartment building. Shared bicycle storage areas and shared cars also contribute to the sense of community.
For the residential house Rapenburg 49 in Leiden, a listed national monument, we designed a plan that both enhances sustainability and strengthens the building’s historical and spatial qualities.
The house consists of a front and rear section. The period rooms in the front house have been restored to their former glory — original details and colors were reinstated, and new wall coverings were applied. The family, with two children, lives in the rear house, which they wished to renovate as sustainably as possible.
By implementing a breathable insulation system, a new insulated ground floor, and an air-source heat pump, the rear house has been successfully taken off the gas grid. During the renovation, the layout was improved, and a dormer and several roof windows were added. The connections on the ground floor between the kitchen and living/dining room, and on the upper floor between the bedroom and library, were reinstated. In all interventions, a careful balance between modern technology and historical awareness was sought.
The project was realized in close collaboration with the client, restoration company Burgy, and Erfgoed Leiden.
Photography: Arjen Veldt
Next to the highway A2 near the centre of Utrecht a spectacular large scale shopping and leisure centre has been realised. The 800 meter long “Ferrari red” complex acts as a noise barrier to the new residential area of Leidsche Rijn. The fluent design of slowly undulating lines is inspired by the perspective of the driver passing the complex in 32 seconds, driving at a speed of 100 km/hour. The fluent lines create an illusion of movement. This building, having a surface area of approx. 65,000m2, houses many retail businesses, a high-quality DIY store, a catering business (fast-food restaurant) and leisure facilities (discotheque, sports or multi-purpose hall). On the roof is a 1400 spaces large car park. The building together with the ‘Cockpitgebouw’ at the Wetering Noord area, designed by the architect Kas Oosterhuis, are the showpiece of the city of Utrecht.
