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. |
The “Villa van Bergenlaan” is located in Rijksdorp, Wassenaar, on the edge of a Natura 2000 protected area.
Situated along a dune ridge, it overlooks the Lentevreugd nature reserve. The villa is modest in expression, partially embedded into the dune, allowing it to become an integral part of the landscape. Energy for the house is generated from sun and air. Because the villa is partly underground, a hybrid structure of concrete and timber has been created.
The materials — including native oak, Fraké wood, concrete, and anodized aluminium — reveal their natural character; nothing is concealed, and in some cases the materials are given a special treatment, such as the wooden slat pattern cast into the concrete. The external façade, one to two storeys high, is clad in timber with concealed window frames.
Characteristic of the villa is the experience of light, space, materiality, and connection with the surrounding landscape. The villa is composed as a sequence of distinct spatial volumes — a modern interpretation of the “Raumplan” principle.
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.
At the beginning of the Kruisweg, the housing project ‘Gemaalhuis’ marks the entrance to Hoofddorp. In collaboration with Timpaan, RROG Urban Planning and Landscape and IBB, moes have been realized in a place where offices used to dominate in the past.
The design for 83 dwellings near the center of Hoofddorp provides a transition between the village ribbon development along the Kruisweg and the large, urban scale that Hoofddorp aspires to. At the design site, the original polder structure was situated perpendicular to the direction of the rest of the Haarlemmermeer. In the design, a passage has been made here in the building block: a quiet residential court without cars and shared use of public space. The buildings are all-sided, refers to the past and seems to have been there for some time without being historicizing. The architecture is robust and stony. Rich brick details refer to the steam pumping stations that stood at the beginning of the creation of Hoofddorp. The complex is a neighbourhood in itself and has variety of housing typologies; single-family houses, veranda houses, terrace houses and apartments. The apartments are designed as freely divisible lofts.
The homes were completed in June 2020.
On the east side of Enschedé, on the outskirts of the city center lies the Miro shopping centre. The former mall has gradually been replaced by new buildings and was worn out. The new building has a curved façade and a large canopy. It embraces the public space and the high-quality parking facility. The shopping facade ends on the east side in a shopping arcade, which contains a large supermarket. On the west side the arcade accumulates into a two storey development. Together with public buildings on the other side of the road the building forms a port that marks the transition from the green suburban neighbourhood to the city itself. The complex includes a green roof that connects on the east end to an ecological zone for butterflies and bats.
