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.
| Architects | Ronald Knappers, Thomas Gillet |
| Client(s) | Timpaan |
The Kanaalpark is an office area along the Vliet on the south side of Leiden. Here, two apartment buildings are being built for starters.
Many offices in this area have long been vacant and the area looks messy and dated. The municipality of Leiden has challenged developers to take the initiative to transform the site into a high-quality living-work area. That glove is being picked up. Some offices are being converted into apartments, others are being demolished and replaced by residential buildings. Viable office owners are making a quality improvement. The municipality has drawn up an ambitious plan for the redesign of the public space.
Commissioned by the Leidse Vastgoed Maatschappij we have designed two apartment buildings for starters on the labor market. Block 1 with 88 apartments is being built on the site of an old office building. Block 2 with 41 apartments will be built on an existing parking lot. The buildings have been carefully integrated into the urban design and complete the structure of closed building blocks. Height accents are determined in conjunction with the environment. The blocks are architecturally parceled, in line with the already completed housing construction.
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.
The ‘Oud Woelwijk’ farm, the oldest part of which dates from before 1528, was still standing at the beginning of the 20th century in a sea of lands and bushes to the south of the village center of Voorschoten. The farm formed an ensemble with the country estate of Roucoop. The country estate no longer exists, and from 1930 the built-up area has been advanced. Yet the Essenlaan is still a protected leafy lane that leads to the old farm. For a plot directly on the other side of the farm, we have made a design for a contemporary energy-neutral home. The single-storey house with hood is designed as an outbuilding of the farm. You reach the plot via a bridge that cuts through the historic woods at a clever location. A very spacious home has been designed partly due to a number of voids. The volume is still closed on the farm side. On the south side, the house opens to the large garden.
On the Boerhaave Campus, part of the Bio Science park in Leiden, the historical anatomy-building has been transformed into housing for Phd-students and researchers of the Leiden University. The new apartments are characterized by their high ceilings and old constructions. A small mezzanine is created to function as a bedroom. Right beside the existing building a new appartmentbuilding is erected, designed by Van Gameren of Mecanoo Architects. The total complex contains 166 apartments and is the first step in the complete transformation of the Boerhaave Campus.
