Housing association St. Willibrordus wants to renew 40 duplex houses along Stompwijckstraat in Wassenaar. The program provides for the realization of 86 social rental homes, mainly for starters and seniors. The plan area is located in a village extension from the 1960s. At the time of completion, this was the northernmost district of Wassenaar and it overlooked the meadows and farms. The district is spacious with a focus on greenery. In the development of the plan, we link up with the basic qualities of the neighborhood with spacious profiles with front gardens and lots of greenery. In order to be able to make the closed building block, the Stompwijckstraat in between will be removed. This provides space to solve parking for residents within the building block. The plan also provides for a communal courtyard with a social facility adjacent to it.
To create privacy in the front gardens, we create a green strip between the front gardens and the sidewalk that remains the property of the municipality. The existing structure of mature trees will be maintained. There is a distinction between a formal front, with zoom houses on the ground floor all around that are accessible from the street side, and an informal rear with parking under an open green deck (through which existing large trees protrude) and the access to the houses on the upper floors. through wide galleries. In the long streets, the building blocks match in scale with the buildings on the overlying because the top (third) storey has a setback in relation to the building line. On three sides of the building block, the balconies of the houses on the upper floors hang from the building blocks as ornaments. The balconies provide contact with the street and respond to the orientation with respect to the sun by means of a rotation and still show the echo of the current situation. The building block responds somewhat more robustly to the northern park side. On the northwest side, one of the blocks reacts in height to the adjacent apartment building.
| Architects | Thomas Gillet, Gerrit-Jan van Rijswijk |
| Client(s) | Housing association St. Willibrordus |
Villa Meijendel takes its name from the nature reserve in which it is located, where a forest meets a valley of dunes. The house is constructed from concrete and set into the side of a sandy slope. The building's design aims to create a dialogue with its surroundings, both through the way the form and materials engage with the landscape, and through the use of glass to provide views out from and into the house.
The boxy geometric structure is entirely clad in charred timber, creating a textured black surface that appears different depending on how sunlight falls on it. The exterior finish, inspired by the ancient Japanese shou sugi ban technique, also helps to preserve the wood. Sometimes the house is almost invisible against the dark edge of the forest, sometimes it sparkles in the sunlight because of the glittering charred wood, as such forming a background for the play of shadows of tree trunks and branches. The villa hides and reveals itself in the landscape.
The property has its entrance on a middle level accommodating an office and two bedrooms. Stairs ascend to an open-plan kitchen and living space, and drop down to a master bedroom and gym room.
The living room features a full-height corner window that looks out through the trees towards the dune valley. A lower window facing to the rear and a large glazed surface lining the adjacent double-height circulation area face out onto the forest. At the far end of the first floor, sliding glass doors lead out from the kitchen onto a terrace.
The material palette –concrete, steel and anodised aluminium– was chosen to complement the tones and textures of the surrounding environment. Each material is applied in a raw, untreated form. Internally, the walls are finished with smooth concrete, while the rough-sawn Douglas fir beams supporting the ceilings feature a distinctive grain.
West 8, Adriaan Geuze, is responsible for the garden design.
Photography is by Christian van der Kooy
A total of 269 houses and apartments are being built by various parties in the Stelt Zuid, part of the “Waalsprong” near Nijmegen. De Stelt Zuid occupies a special position as a green enclave between the village of Lent and the river. Four combinations of architectural firm and developer work together here on a new residential area, with a central orchard and the dike zone as structuring elements.
Commissioned by BPD, we made the design for 12 dike houses in the dike zone. The houses have a living area of approximately 190 m2 and all have a fantastic view from the living floor over the Waal and the city of Nijmegen. There is parking at the bottom of the houses, on the first floor the master bedroom, kitchen and backyard are situated on the dike, on the second floor the living room with a view of the Waal and the third floor can be set up as a sleeping and / or work space. The houses are gas-free and the roof is fitted with solar panels.
The height differences of the dike area are reflected in the gardens and the transition to the struing area along the dike. From the terrace of the houses you can walk towards the banks of the Waal.
The houses were put on sale in December 2019.
In cooperation with Smits bouwbedrijf, VVKH has won the european tender to develop a new housingarea in district Dieperhout in Leiden. The project consists of 48 dwellings, 12 apartments and a care facility of 1500m². Start of the constructionwork is planned in may 2015, because thats when a current school will move to a new building and the site will be available.
Together with restoration contractor Burgy from Leiden, the back house, the garden house of the house at Garenmarkt 9 / 9a, has been completely restored and modernized. The new owner lives in this part. The front house with a number of apartments / studios for rent will remain unchanged for the time being.
The house at Garenmarkt 9, 9a is also popularly known as 'Thorbeckehuis'. The house has one of the largest private backyards in Leiden. In the Secret Annex, the garden house (No. 9a), the liberal statesman Johan Rudolph Thorbecke wrote in 1848 the revision of the Constitution, which turned our country into a constitutional monarchy. Thorbecke has lead three cabinets from 1849. A gable stone in the national monument reminds of the habitation by the liberal statesman and professor of law (1798-1872).
