Editorial
Articles
-
In 2019 we have a global environmental crisis of catastrophic proportions and, in the UK at least, a rapidly growing population, a chronic shortage of housing and unsustainable pressure on our transport infrastructure. With more women in work than ever before and less welldefined gender roles, there is increased pressure on those in employment with caring responsibilities. At the same time, there is a steady growth in self-employment. This reached four million people, or 15 per cent of the entire workforce, in the UK in 2015. All these factors have contributed to a major upturn in flexible working practices, globally, that has home-based work at its core. They indicate a need to stop commuting and become far more rooted in our neighbourhoods.
In the UK, one in seven people are now in home-based work – twice as many as 15 years ago. This major socioeconomic shift looks set to continue, and there are substantive reasons to embrace it, globally. Home-based work reduces commuting and therefore carbon emissions and pressure on transport infrastructures. By reducing the number of workplaces, it intensifies the use of the overall building stock, liberating redundant workspace for other purposes including, in the UK at least, desperately needed housing.
In 2019 we have a global environmental crisis of catastrophic proportions and, in the UK at least, a rapidly growing population, a chronic shortage of housing and unsustainable pressure on our transport infrastructure. With more women in work than ever before and less welldefined gender roles, there is increased pressure on those in employment with caring responsibilities. At the same time, there is a steady growth in self-employment. This reached four million people, or 15 per cent of the entire workforce, in the UK in 2015. All these factors have contributed to a major upturn in flexible working practices, globally, that has home-based work at its core. They indicate a need to stop commuting and become far more rooted in our neighbourhoods.
In the UK, one in seven people are now in home-based work – twice as many as 15 years ago. This major socioeconomic shift looks set to continue, and there are substantive reasons to embrace it, globally. Home-based work reduces...
In 2019 we have a global environmental crisis of catastrophic proportions and, in the UK at least, a rapidly growing population, a chronic shortage of housing and unsustainable pressure on our transport infrastructure. With more women in work than ever before and less welldefined gender roles,...
-
Dutch housing culture has its origins in the urban terraced houses in which people lived and worked for centuries, in all kinds of configurations. 1 The individual dwelling remained the determining unit of urban development until industrialization took off in the nineteenth century. However, even in the seventeenth century, people were thinking and designing on a larger scale; of this, the urban extension of the Amsterdam canal area is the best-known exponent. But while this extension plan concerned an entire district, in the end it was yet again the terraced house, in this case the chic canal-side house, that was the development unit. As a result, the character of the city block remained secondary, with the urban design dependant on individual owners.2 Much less known but all the more interesting are a number of projects from the same period that were actually based on the entire city block as a development and design unit. In quick succession, various architects in different cities took on the experiment to create designs for city blocks that combined living and working for a specific target group, namely weavers and their families.
This article will compare three of these weavers’ blocks and join the architects in their search for the added value of the city block as a design unit. What advantages did they see? What design choices did they make on the basis of perceived advantages? Did the combination of living and working in these artisan dwellings influence the design, and which criteria were decisive? What could the designers refer to in their façade designs given the fact that the entire city block was the architectural unit? And finally, with regard to flexibility: How did they guarantee that they would be able to find tenants, should the weavers stay away? These are questions that, if you look at current discussions about urban living and working blocks, have lost none of their topicality.
Dutch housing culture has its origins in the urban terraced houses in which people lived and worked for centuries, in all kinds of configurations. 1 The individual dwelling remained the determining unit of urban development until industrialization took off in the nineteenth century. However, even in the seventeenth century, people were thinking and designing on a larger scale; of this, the urban extension of the Amsterdam canal area is the best-known exponent. But while this extension plan concerned an entire district, in the end it was yet again the terraced house, in this case the chic canal-side house, that was the development unit. As a result, the character of the city block remained secondary, with the urban design dependant on individual owners.2 Much less known but all the more interesting are a number of projects from the same period that were actually based on the entire city block as a development and design unit. In quick succession, various architects in different...
Dutch housing culture has its origins in the urban terraced houses in which people lived and worked for centuries, in all kinds of configurations. 1 The individual dwelling remained the determining unit of urban development until industrialization took off in the nineteenth century. However,...
-
Is it possible to organize a neighbourhood in which living and working are interwoven in a natural way? In which there is room for collectivism, for the creation of a strong community, while the privacy of the resident is respected? In 2012, Japanese studio Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop carried out a design study into a new way of living, introducing a concept that included approximately 500 people living together as a collective, the Local Community Area (LCA). The plan embodied fierce criticism of Japanese housing policies, which promote owner-occupied housing in order to stimulate the economy while people with low incomes have hardly any opportunities on the housing market. It is a policy that is very unilaterally focused on single-family homes and one-room apartments, which as individual units have little connection with the neighbourhood.
The Japanese tradition of living and working can enrich the debate on this subject, which is central to this issue of DASH, with new insights. Yamamoto’s design study is so very interesting because it examines this theme at different scale levels, from that of the neighbourhood to that of the street and the dwelling. Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop is of the opinion that the currently dominant political model with regard to individual housing is outdated. The architects believe it is time to think big and to open up the boundaries of the dwelling. In addition, they also radically question the separation of living and working. Wondering if some other housing system capable of connecting a community was administratively possible, they came up with the spatial conditions for a ‘dwelling’ that houses 500 residents, in which mutual help is a fact and that includes individual units, albeit rather small ones. If this is actually built, says Yamamoto, it will depend on the context in question how many people can live together. He anticipates a density of 500 people per hectare; perhaps less in a suburb.
Is it possible to organize a neighbourhood in which living and working are interwoven in a natural way? In which there is room for collectivism, for the creation of a strong community, while the privacy of the resident is respected? In 2012, Japanese studio Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop carried out a design study into a new way of living, introducing a concept that included approximately 500 people living together as a collective, the Local Community Area (LCA). The plan embodied fierce criticism of Japanese housing policies, which promote owner-occupied housing in order to stimulate the economy while people with low incomes have hardly any opportunities on the housing market. It is a policy that is very unilaterally focused on single-family homes and one-room apartments, which as individual units have little connection with the neighbourhood.
The Japanese tradition of living and working can enrich the debate on this subject, which is central to this issue of DASH, with...
Is it possible to organize a neighbourhood in which living and working are interwoven in a natural way? In which there is room for collectivism, for the creation of a strong community, while the privacy of the resident is respected? In 2012, Japanese studio Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop...
-
In the twentieth century, the development of Amsterdam was marked by important moments of change. These moments are still visible as sudden transitions in the year rings of the concentrically grown city. The first transformative moment can be deduced from the year rings created around 1920. The nineteenth- and early twentieth-century extensions of the city were based on the existing rural polder structures. This changed drastically in the 1920s as the new extensions replaced the old landscape patterns with a formal and autonomous composition of lanes, streets, squares and canals. The change was made visible for the first time in Plan Zuid, H.P. Berlage’s famous urban development plan, which took its final shape following a series of design proposals in 1915.1 The second transformation took place about 20 years later, when the closed city blocks with a diversity of functions that defined the lanes and streets of Berlage’s plan were replaced by individual buildings, each with a specific function and free-standing in a continuous open space, most clearly articulated in Cornelis van Eesteren’s Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan (AUP).
The way in which the artist’s studio, as a special variety of a combined living and working space, is incorporated and represented in the buildings in these different periods is exceptionally illustrative of the radical changes in the relationship between urban structure, architecture and programmes over time.
In the twentieth century, the development of Amsterdam was marked by important moments of change. These moments are still visible as sudden transitions in the year rings of the concentrically grown city. The first transformative moment can be deduced from the year rings created around 1920. The nineteenth- and early twentieth-century extensions of the city were based on the existing rural polder structures. This changed drastically in the 1920s as the new extensions replaced the old landscape patterns with a formal and autonomous composition of lanes, streets, squares and canals. The change was made visible for the first time in Plan Zuid, H.P. Berlage’s famous urban development plan, which took its final shape following a series of design proposals in 1915.1 The second transformation took place about 20 years later, when the closed city blocks with a diversity of functions that defined the lanes and streets of Berlage’s plan were replaced by individual buildings, each with a...
In the twentieth century, the development of Amsterdam was marked by important moments of change. These moments are still visible as sudden transitions in the year rings of the concentrically grown city. The first transformative moment can be deduced from the year rings created around 1920....
-
Today the idea of ‘mixed use’ is one of the leading policies in the urban (re)development of many European cities. UN Habitat recently indicated that: ‘. . . cities have a natural advantage when it comes to promoting low-carbon mobility. Their density and mixed use ensure that many destinations can easily be reached on foot, by bike or using public transport.’ From this we can define mixed-use neighbourhoods as those that interweave a diversity of urban activities within a walkable distance, thus in spatial proximity. Which urban configurational conditions afford a mixed-use city?
It comes as no surprise that different activities require different spatial conditions. Retail, for example, needs centrally located and accessible streets that are pedestrian friendly, as well as a high built density, which points at a high flow of people that will deliver a critical mass. Smallscale manufacturing, on the other hand, benefits from accessible outdoor space, doors big enough to enable the transport of larger products as well as well-accessible loading zones. Then there are the hybrid businesses that in the last years have become more common, which integrate different types of work activities. You can think of workshops manufacturing products and selling them on the spot, or businesses selling books and being a café at the same time, or service businesses also selling products. Dwellings, which nowadays also often accommodate a home-office, usually need a quieter environment, with high accessibility to green and other leisure facilities. A mixed-use city thus should provide all these different conditions in proximity. All activities depend on the spatial condition of the place itself, but also on their position in the network of the urban street system. Therefore, a multiscalar and multivariable spatial understanding of the affordance of mixed use is crucial.
Today the idea of ‘mixed use’ is one of the leading policies in the urban (re)development of many European cities. UN Habitat recently indicated that: ‘. . . cities have a natural advantage when it comes to promoting low-carbon mobility. Their density and mixed use ensure that many destinations can easily be reached on foot, by bike or using public transport.’ From this we can define mixed-use neighbourhoods as those that interweave a diversity of urban activities within a walkable distance, thus in spatial proximity. Which urban configurational conditions afford a mixed-use city?
It comes as no surprise that different activities require different spatial conditions. Retail, for example, needs centrally located and accessible streets that are pedestrian friendly, as well as a high built density, which points at a high flow of people that will deliver a critical mass. Smallscale manufacturing, on the other hand, benefits from accessible outdoor space, doors big...
Today the idea of ‘mixed use’ is one of the leading policies in the urban (re)development of many European cities. UN Habitat recently indicated that: ‘. . . cities have a natural advantage when it comes to promoting low-carbon mobility. Their density and mixed use ensure that many...
-
Cash’s One Hundred Cottage Factory was a development of 46 weavers’ houses built in 1857 in Coventry. A shared driveshaft ran through the upper-floor weaving studios, powered by a collective steam engine, allowing home-based silk weavers to operate power looms and therefore compete with their factory-based peers. Such buildings were called ‘cottage factories’. Arranged as a pair of 12-m-high terraces around a set of allotments, the larger 112-m-long block overlooked the Coventry Canal to the east, while the shorter, at 62 m, overlooked Cash’s Lane to the south. The scheme also included the Head Office for J. & J. Cash, Ltd., the silk weaving company that built the development and employed the resident weavers.
Recognizable as an institution from the street and the canal, the height and monumentality of the red brick development sets it apart from its residential surroundings. Gabled bays articulate the centre and ends of each block, and mark two arched entrances to the interior of the scheme. The dual use of the building is clearly legible. Large expanses of glass at the second-floor level, maximizing the natural light to looms in double-height studio spaces, read together horizontally as ‘factory’. Simultaneously, terraces of two-up-two-down ‘homes’ below are articulated through the use of vertical brickwork piers, tall chimneys and domesticscale windows and doors. The interior of the block is less formal, with rear kitchen and bathroom extensions breaking up the monolithic nature of the blocks beneath the simpler, but still fully-glazed, rear elevations of the weaving studios.
Cash’s One Hundred Cottage Factory was a development of 46 weavers’ houses built in 1857 in Coventry. A shared driveshaft ran through the upper-floor weaving studios, powered by a collective steam engine, allowing home-based silk weavers to operate power looms and therefore compete with their factory-based peers. Such buildings were called ‘cottage factories’. Arranged as a pair of 12-m-high terraces around a set of allotments, the larger 112-m-long block overlooked the Coventry Canal to the east, while the shorter, at 62 m, overlooked Cash’s Lane to the south. The scheme also included the Head Office for J. & J. Cash, Ltd., the silk weaving company that built the development and employed the resident weavers.
Recognizable as an institution from the street and the canal, the height and monumentality of the red brick development sets it apart from its residential surroundings. Gabled bays articulate the centre and ends of each block, and mark two arched...
Cash’s One Hundred Cottage Factory was a development of 46 weavers’ houses built in 1857 in Coventry. A shared driveshaft ran through the upper-floor weaving studios, powered by a collective steam engine, allowing home-based silk weavers to operate power looms and therefore compete with...
Interviews
-
While preparing this issue of DASH, the editorial board noticed that it was hard to find recent projects that successfully combine living and working. Even though Dutch housing has a reputation of plan innovation, its projects rarely explicitly address the issue. To get a better understanding of why this is the case, and to discuss how workhome arrangements can be stimulated in the Netherlands, DASH organized a discussion. We invited a number of Dutch architects and planners who are involved in projects combining living and working to share their experiences and ideas at a round-table discussion.
The conversations are fed by two case studies: architects Jo Janssen and Wim van den Bergh present Piazza Ceramique, a successful workhome project, and Jeroen de Bok and Isabelle Vries, of the City of Rotterdam and the Port of Rotterdam respectively, will explain the joint strategy for the Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H), a harbour area that will be converted into a mixed living and working innovation district. The afternoon starts with a guest from London, architect and academic Frances Holliss, author of the publication Beyond Live/Work: The Architecture of Home-Based Work.2 She starts the round table with a brief analysis of the situation of the workhome in the United Kingdom and ends with a call for action. To open the discussion, she asks the participants about the current situation in the Netherlands. What are the conditions that facilitate or obstruct design for home-based work?’
While preparing this issue of DASH, the editorial board noticed that it was hard to find recent projects that successfully combine living and working. Even though Dutch housing has a reputation of plan innovation, its projects rarely explicitly address the issue. To get a better understanding of why this is the case, and to discuss how workhome arrangements can be stimulated in the Netherlands, DASH organized a discussion. We invited a number of Dutch architects and planners who are involved in projects combining living and working to share their experiences and ideas at a round-table discussion.
The conversations are fed by two case studies: architects Jo Janssen and Wim van den Bergh present Piazza Ceramique, a successful workhome project, and Jeroen de Bok and Isabelle Vries, of the City of Rotterdam and the Port of Rotterdam respectively, will explain the joint strategy for the Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H), a harbour area that will be converted into a mixed living and...
While preparing this issue of DASH, the editorial board noticed that it was hard to find recent projects that successfully combine living and working. Even though Dutch housing has a reputation of plan innovation, its projects rarely explicitly address the issue. To get a better understanding...
-
This edition of DASH documents ten projects that, on the scale of the urban block, explore the ways in which workhome combinations contribute to urban design, architecture and programming. Historical examples in Coventry, London, Kyoto, Paris and Amsterdam as well as more recent projects in Basel, again Paris, Maastricht, Rotterdam and (a brand new one in) Berlin, in both growing and planned cities, offer relevant leads. The drawing method used in the project analyses focuses on three design themes: the representation of the mixed programme, the collective domain and the accessibility from the public realm (the area between the street and the front door), and finally how living and working are interwoven on the scale of both the urban block and the dwelling.
The way the ten documented projects manifest in the urban fabric is unusual because of the added work programme. In this context, we primarily focus on the mixed programme’s representation and recognizability towards the city as well as – if the project is part of a larger urban block – on its representation within the created enclave (the collective domain). This representation is presented in a full-page isometric projection of the ensemble in its urban context. Projects that refer to the scale and façade composition of factories include Cash’s One Hundred Cottage Factory, where a continuous strip of windows represents a factory hall, WoonWerkPand Tetterode, a transformed former letter-foundry and Schiecentrale 4b, with its impressive, tight-gridded glass façade. Other projects take their representation from the logic of the workshop or atelier. The Pullens Estate is made up of small work-yards with small-scale workshops and IBeB: Integratives Bauprojekt am ehemaligen Blumengroßmarkt is interwoven with the ground level in cross section: double-high basement ateliers are accessed via footbridges and topped by north-facing atelier apartments with workspaces on the ground floor. Yet other projects make use of the neutral aesthetics of the office, such as Piazza Céramique. In this context the collage comprising Wohnhäuser St. Alban-Tal is exceptional because in it, the representation of living and working (the two are never linked) has an ambiguous character.
This edition of DASH documents ten projects that, on the scale of the urban block, explore the ways in which workhome combinations contribute to urban design, architecture and programming. Historical examples in Coventry, London, Kyoto, Paris and Amsterdam as well as more recent projects in Basel, again Paris, Maastricht, Rotterdam and (a brand new one in) Berlin, in both growing and planned cities, offer relevant leads. The drawing method used in the project analyses focuses on three design themes: the representation of the mixed programme, the collective domain and the accessibility from the public realm (the area between the street and the front door), and finally how living and working are interwoven on the scale of both the urban block and the dwelling.
The way the ten documented projects manifest in the urban fabric is unusual because of the added work programme. In this context, we primarily focus on the mixed programme’s representation and recognizability...
This edition of DASH documents ten projects that, on the scale of the urban block, explore the ways in which workhome combinations contribute to urban design, architecture and programming. Historical examples in Coventry, London, Kyoto, Paris and Amsterdam as well as more recent projects in...
Case Studies
-
In the Pullens Estate, built near Elephant and Castle, London in 1886-1901, 684 one-bedroom apartments were built in 12 austere tenement blocks across six streets. Each of the ground- and first-floor flats extended into a contiguous workspace that backed onto one of four cobbled yards. This unique arrangement developed the mews model around the needs of the manufacturing poor: blue-collar workhomes. Combining workers’ housing with industrial units, it allowed artisans, small traders and their families to live and work on the premises. Ground-floor shops with elaborate glazed timber frontages, facing outwards onto the street on either side of the gated entrance to each yard, also combined with adjacent living space.
Taller and wider residential streets alternated with smaller-scale, narrower light industrial/commercial yards to create separate (clean and quiet) living and (noisy and dirty) working environments. Although only really apparent from the streets that run perpendicular to the yards, the unconventional nature of the estate gives its inhabitants a sense of identity. The close association of homes and workshops means this dense development has always been inhabited throughout the 24 hours of the day, stimulating local social networks, the local economy and contributing to a busier and therefore safer neighbourhood. The yards are closed at one end, preventing through traffic; their gated entrances are located in imposing brick walls. The resultant sense of enclosure and place contributes to the development of community among working neighbours. Shared entrances to the apartments, and collective gardens and washing lines on flat roofs overlooking the yards, have a similar impact on those who live next door to each other.
In the Pullens Estate, built near Elephant and Castle, London in 1886-1901, 684 one-bedroom apartments were built in 12 austere tenement blocks across six streets. Each of the ground- and first-floor flats extended into a contiguous workspace that backed onto one of four cobbled yards. This unique arrangement developed the mews model around the needs of the manufacturing poor: blue-collar workhomes. Combining workers’ housing with industrial units, it allowed artisans, small traders and their families to live and work on the premises. Ground-floor shops with elaborate glazed timber frontages, facing outwards onto the street on either side of the gated entrance to each yard, also combined with adjacent living space.
Taller and wider residential streets alternated with smaller-scale, narrower light industrial/commercial yards to create separate (clean and quiet) living and (noisy and dirty) working environments. Although only really apparent from the streets that run...
In the Pullens Estate, built near Elephant and Castle, London in 1886-1901, 684 one-bedroom apartments were built in 12 austere tenement blocks across six streets. Each of the ground- and first-floor flats extended into a contiguous workspace that backed onto one of four cobbled yards. This...
-
Machiya are traditional wooden dwellings that are still very common in Japanese cities. The combination of dwelling and work space is anchored in the genesis of this dwelling type, which was built by the merchants and craftsmen of old. The original use included the display of goods in the shop (mise) on the street side and living space for families in the rooms at the back. The sleeping quarters of the staff were on the upper floor and kimonos and other valuable possessions were kept safe in the storage room (kura), the ‘treasury’ at the back of the courtyard. The urban structure consists of a grid of squares, with the machiya forming more or less closed building blocks. In some cases blocks are dissected by smaller streets and divided into fragments.
Mumeisha Machiya, a beautiful example of a largely traditional machiya, was built in 1909 by a family of silk traders named Yoshida. Machiya stand side by side on narrow, deep plots, with one or more patios providing outdoor space and daylight. Characteristic is the toriniwa, the long corridor along the side wall. In Mumeisha Machiya, the toriniwa successively houses the entrance, a waiting room, a well, the kitchen and closets and opens onto the backyard, near the kura. Its floor is stone-like and outdoor shoes are worn here, unlike in the slightly higher spaces that are covered in tatami mats or wood. The toriniwa is ‘neither inside nor outside’. It threads the rooms of the house together and embodies the gradual transition from the public space of the street to the private space at the back. The urban logistic system of main streets, side streets and alleys ends in the toriniwa, where a curtain and sliding doors are passed as one slowly works one’s way into the private domain.
Machiya are traditional wooden dwellings that are still very common in Japanese cities. The combination of dwelling and work space is anchored in the genesis of this dwelling type, which was built by the merchants and craftsmen of old. The original use included the display of goods in the shop (mise) on the street side and living space for families in the rooms at the back. The sleeping quarters of the staff were on the upper floor and kimonos and other valuable possessions were kept safe in the storage room (kura), the ‘treasury’ at the back of the courtyard. The urban structure consists of a grid of squares, with the machiya forming more or less closed building blocks. In some cases blocks are dissected by smaller streets and divided into fragments.
Mumeisha Machiya, a beautiful example of a largely traditional machiya, was built in 1909 by a family of silk traders named Yoshida. Machiya stand side by side on narrow, deep plots, with one or more patios providing...
Machiya are traditional wooden dwellings that are still very common in Japanese cities. The combination of dwelling and work space is anchored in the genesis of this dwelling type, which was built by the merchants and craftsmen of old. The original use included the display of goods in the shop...
-
A group of artists launched the construction of the Cité Montmartre aux Artistes with the objective of finding an affordable place to live and work, at a time in which most of the units of this type in Paris were not occupied by artists, but by wealthier classes willing to inhabit innovative housing typologies.
The first tenants moved in in 1932, but in 1936 the Paris public housing authority (OPHBM de la ville de Paris – currently known as Paris Habitat) acquired the site, because the artists were having difficulties finalizing the project. From its origin, OPHBM’s policies favoured the permanence of artists in the city. This tradition of mixing working and community life dates back to the Middle Ages, and was later developed as an architectural and social project under the influence of utopian thinking. Today, Paris Habitat, which undertook the rehabilitation of the entire complex in 2001, manages the largest portfolio of workhome units for artists in France. Artists and young professionals can thus find spaces that meet their needs to combine habitat and production within the city.
A group of artists launched the construction of the Cité Montmartre aux Artistes with the objective of finding an affordable place to live and work, at a time in which most of the units of this type in Paris were not occupied by artists, but by wealthier classes willing to inhabit innovative housing typologies.
The first tenants moved in in 1932, but in 1936 the Paris public housing authority (OPHBM de la ville de Paris – currently known as Paris Habitat) acquired the site, because the artists were having difficulties finalizing the project. From its origin, OPHBM’s policies favoured the permanence of artists in the city. This tradition of mixing working and community life dates back to the Middle Ages, and was later developed as an architectural and social project under the influence of utopian thinking. Today, Paris Habitat, which undertook the rehabilitation of the entire complex in 2001, manages the largest portfolio of workhome units for artists in France....
A group of artists launched the construction of the Cité Montmartre aux Artistes with the objective of finding an affordable place to live and work, at a time in which most of the units of this type in Paris were not occupied by artists, but by wealthier classes willing to inhabit innovative...
-
By understanding the two apartment buildings with studios placed at right angles to each other as a collage of two building volumes that is a logical continuation of the surrounding urban fabric, this ensemble in the St. Alban-Tal district builds on Aldo Rossi’s idea that the city must be understood in its entirety. The two building volumes of similar dimensions replace two former paper mills, and are closely placed on either side of a narrow industrial canal, like a number of old paper mills immediately south of the ensemble. The western building volume accentuates the end of the central road through St. Alban-Tal and also flanks an elongated square along the Rhine. Lengthwise the eastern volume is oriented towards the river, offering panoramic views over the water. This is accentuated by a series of tall, top-floor windows emphasized by an emphatically protruding roof edge.
Owing to the articulation of the façades, the long sides of the two volumes look substantially different. The two off-white stucco façades that border on the public domain speak the language of New Objectivity. They mediate between the pre- war and post-war parts of the city, both found in the immediate vicinity. They also address specific moments in the urban sequence by the precise positioning of open and closed façade sections. The backs of the volumes are each different. The southern façade, which overlooks the old industrial quarter, has adapted the principles of board and batten siding and is coloured mint green. This provides the south-oriented garden with an almost rural atmosphere. The back of the western building volume consists of a light-grey stuccoed concrete grid with an industrial look. This eastern façade borders directly on the narrow canal, which is spanned by a slender footbridge that connects the two buildings. The different identities of the project bring a walk through the city to mind. They create a succession of atmospheres for visitors to move through, in which every next space foreshadows itself.
By understanding the two apartment buildings with studios placed at right angles to each other as a collage of two building volumes that is a logical continuation of the surrounding urban fabric, this ensemble in the St. Alban-Tal district builds on Aldo Rossi’s idea that the city must be understood in its entirety. The two building volumes of similar dimensions replace two former paper mills, and are closely placed on either side of a narrow industrial canal, like a number of old paper mills immediately south of the ensemble. The western building volume accentuates the end of the central road through St. Alban-Tal and also flanks an elongated square along the Rhine. Lengthwise the eastern volume is oriented towards the river, offering panoramic views over the water. This is accentuated by a series of tall, top-floor windows emphasized by an emphatically protruding roof edge.
Owing to the articulation of the façades, the long sides of the two volumes look substantially...
By understanding the two apartment buildings with studios placed at right angles to each other as a collage of two building volumes that is a logical continuation of the surrounding urban fabric, this ensemble in the St. Alban-Tal district builds on Aldo Rossi’s idea that the city must be...
-
In 2007 Paris saw the completion of the Quartier Masséna, a district consisting of 17 urban blocks, a park (Jardins Grands Moulins Abbé Pierre) and a number of transformed existing buildings (Bibliothèque des Grands Moulins, Université Paris Diderot and artists’ breeding ground Les Frigos) on its left bank. In his master plan Christian de Portzamparc used the principle of the îlot ouvert (Open Block) to organize dwellings and work spaces and to provide residents with a rich, collective outdoor space. The îlot ouvert is best described as a fragmented closed building block. Rather than forming a single urban volume, the building mass of an îlot ouvert is distributed over a number of buildings that in turn comprise different volumes of varying height and form. The collective outdoor space is accessed via patios in – and openings between – the buildings, which are closed off from the public street by fencing that follows the building line of the urban block.
The îlot ouvert directly to the north of the university buildings demonstrates what block fragmentation can do for the dwelling and work space ratio. Here, four architects have designed four buildings, one on each corner of the urban block. The architects used the design freedom provided them to design totally different buildings. They each chose their own access and building typology, determined the assembly of the volumes and the material palette, and established how functions are organized at the building level. The way the volumes relate to their surroundings at ground level is also different.
In 2007 Paris saw the completion of the Quartier Masséna, a district consisting of 17 urban blocks, a park (Jardins Grands Moulins Abbé Pierre) and a number of transformed existing buildings (Bibliothèque des Grands Moulins, Université Paris Diderot and artists’ breeding ground Les Frigos) on its left bank. In his master plan Christian de Portzamparc used the principle of the îlot ouvert (Open Block) to organize dwellings and work spaces and to provide residents with a rich, collective outdoor space. The îlot ouvert is best described as a fragmented closed building block. Rather than forming a single urban volume, the building mass of an îlot ouvert is distributed over a number of buildings that in turn comprise different volumes of varying height and form. The collective outdoor space is accessed via patios in – and openings between – the buildings, which are closed off from the public street by fencing that follows the building line of the urban block.
The...
In 2007 Paris saw the completion of the Quartier Masséna, a district consisting of 17 urban blocks, a park (Jardins Grands Moulins Abbé Pierre) and a number of transformed existing buildings (Bibliothèque des Grands Moulins, Université Paris Diderot and artists’ breeding ground Les...
-
Piazza Céramique can be considered one of the keystones of the Céramique district in Maastricht, realized from 1987 onwards according to a master plan by Jo Coenen. The plan provides for a substantial expansion of the inner-city area with an urban programme of dwellings and work and cultural spaces on the former factory site of the Société Céramique and (later) ceramics producer Sphinx. Whereas most of the residential buildings are U-shaped apartment blocks with green courtyards opening onto the Avenue Céramique, this urban ensemble is in a class of its own because it turns the urban building block projected in the master plan inside-out. Rather than a single building block, the architects designed a composition of three volumes on a (parking) platform that merges into the urban composition created by the surrounding buildings. This open arrangement ensures that the publicly accessible piazza and the urban garden located to the east of block B, which is bordered by the former factory wall, become natural links in the finely meshed pedestrian network that connects various inner courtyards and streets. Two high cubic volumes (A, only townhouses and B, mixed programme) on the north side and a narrow, low building volume (C, a terrace of seven dwellings with work space, designed by Luijten/Verheij architecten) on the south side are in perfect harmony with each other and with the adjacent buildings, which are all clad in the same red brick. The stoniness of the public space underlines the formal urban architecture of the two palazzi.
Piazza Céramique can be considered one of the keystones of the Céramique district in Maastricht, realized from 1987 onwards according to a master plan by Jo Coenen. The plan provides for a substantial expansion of the inner-city area with an urban programme of dwellings and work and cultural spaces on the former factory site of the Société Céramique and (later) ceramics producer Sphinx. Whereas most of the residential buildings are U-shaped apartment blocks with green courtyards opening onto the Avenue Céramique, this urban ensemble is in a class of its own because it turns the urban building block projected in the master plan inside-out. Rather than a single building block, the architects designed a composition of three volumes on a (parking) platform that merges into the urban composition created by the surrounding buildings. This open arrangement ensures that the publicly accessible piazza and the urban garden located to the east of block B, which is bordered by the...
Piazza Céramique can be considered one of the keystones of the Céramique district in Maastricht, realized from 1987 onwards according to a master plan by Jo Coenen. The plan provides for a substantial expansion of the inner-city area with an urban programme of dwellings and work and cultural...
-
For many years, the Lloydpier in Rotterdam was nothing but a raw piece of city with mainly port industry. Now, creative businesses are flourishing where there used to be warehouses and where cargo and passenger ships left for the Dutch East Indies. Since 1995 the former Schiehaven Power Station located on the pier, which once included a battery house, canteen, transformer house, boiler house and turbine hall, has been fully transformed into a compact piece of city with new programming (music and television studio, event hall, offices and restaurant). In addition to this redevelopment, two buildings have been added to the complex: Kraton 230 (radio and television station RTV Rijnmond’s office and studios) and Schiecentrale 4b, a flexible residential and commercial building that mainly accommodates companies from the creative sector.
Schiecentrale 4b consists of two slab-shaped volumes that have been placed right behind the old generator hall of the former power plant, on top of a four-storey parking garage. The main entrance to the residential and commercial building is located on the pedestrian Schiehavenkade. The façades clearly show that the high-rise includes several functions, but it is not immediately clear which ones. The two lower layers of the slabs accommodate office spaces and after-school care facilities. These are accessible from a raised, semi-public square on the roof of the parking garage, which is furnished with a grandstand and seats that both the residents and staff can use. The other floors comprise workhomes that were sold unfinished so that the owners could design their own layout. In order to make this flexibility possible, all of the installations were designed as superstructures. Double metal-stud walls between the workhomes make it easy to combine units if necessary, and all spaces meet the maximum occupancy requirements with regard to escape routes and fire hazards, to ensure that functions are easily interchangeable. The flexible workhomes have two entrance doors, which makes it possible to use part of each unit as office space – partly in order to meet requirements set by the tax authorities.
For many years, the Lloydpier in Rotterdam was nothing but a raw piece of city with mainly port industry. Now, creative businesses are flourishing where there used to be warehouses and where cargo and passenger ships left for the Dutch East Indies. Since 1995 the former Schiehaven Power Station located on the pier, which once included a battery house, canteen, transformer house, boiler house and turbine hall, has been fully transformed into a compact piece of city with new programming (music and television studio, event hall, offices and restaurant). In addition to this redevelopment, two buildings have been added to the complex: Kraton 230 (radio and television station RTV Rijnmond’s office and studios) and Schiecentrale 4b, a flexible residential and commercial building that mainly accommodates companies from the creative sector.
Schiecentrale 4b consists of two slab-shaped volumes that have been placed right behind the old generator hall of the former power plant, on...
For many years, the Lloydpier in Rotterdam was nothing but a raw piece of city with mainly port industry. Now, creative businesses are flourishing where there used to be warehouses and where cargo and passenger ships left for the Dutch East Indies. Since 1995 the former Schiehaven Power...
-
When N.V. Lettergieterij Amsterdam, formerly N. Tetterode, left its Bilderdijkstraat premises in 1981, a developer wanted to replace it with luxury apartments and shops. In protest against these plans, squatters occupied the building. Five years later, the city bought the building complex and the squatters, united in a single cooperative, were able to rent the building shell from housing association Het Oosten. Holslag van Nek van Hoek Architekten renovated the complex and performed a number of interventions to ensure that it was safe to use. The most striking of these was the removal of part of the roof over the factory hall between the buildings, creating an inner courtyard and escape route.
The realization of this living and working community within a robust shell brings John Habraken’s ideas to mind: the industrial building complex designed by various architects is the support (base building); the infill (fit-out) is created by the users. Habraken believed that it was necessary to take action to reside and that appropriation would lead to identity. Read this way, squatting and the resulting living and working community are exactly what he was aiming for.
When N.V. Lettergieterij Amsterdam, formerly N. Tetterode, left its Bilderdijkstraat premises in 1981, a developer wanted to replace it with luxury apartments and shops. In protest against these plans, squatters occupied the building. Five years later, the city bought the building complex and the squatters, united in a single cooperative, were able to rent the building shell from housing association Het Oosten. Holslag van Nek van Hoek Architekten renovated the complex and performed a number of interventions to ensure that it was safe to use. The most striking of these was the removal of part of the roof over the factory hall between the buildings, creating an inner courtyard and escape route.
The realization of this living and working community within a robust shell brings John Habraken’s ideas to mind: the industrial building complex designed by various architects is the support (base building); the infill (fit-out) is created by the users. Habraken believed that it...
When N.V. Lettergieterij Amsterdam, formerly N. Tetterode, left its Bilderdijkstraat premises in 1981, a developer wanted to replace it with luxury apartments and shops. In protest against these plans, squatters occupied the building. Five years later, the city bought the building complex and...
-
In the spring of 2018, builders completed a striking new urban block in Berlin-Kreuzberg, directly opposite the Jewish Museum Berlin. The building is at right angles to the prestigious Lindenstrasse and next to the auction hall of the former Blumengrossmarkt (Wholesale Flower Market).
The robust mass is five storeys high, 22.5 m wide and more than 100 m long. The architecture effortlessly connects the vocabulary of a residential building with that of a work building: a strong hybrid. The long sides of the building largely consist of glazed brickwork surfaces with deeply recessed, repetitive fronts. Its two ends have a sculptural urban quality. In the elongated southern façade, the brickwork is alternated with protruding balconies that emphasize the horizontality of the façade. The remarkably transparent base of the building allows for public-oriented functions.
In the spring of 2018, builders completed a striking new urban block in Berlin-Kreuzberg, directly opposite the Jewish Museum Berlin. The building is at right angles to the prestigious Lindenstrasse and next to the auction hall of the former Blumengrossmarkt (Wholesale Flower Market).
The robust mass is five storeys high, 22.5 m wide and more than 100 m long. The architecture effortlessly connects the vocabulary of a residential building with that of a work building: a strong hybrid. The long sides of the building largely consist of glazed brickwork surfaces with deeply recessed, repetitive fronts. Its two ends have a sculptural urban quality. In the elongated southern façade, the brickwork is alternated with protruding balconies that emphasize the horizontality of the façade. The remarkably transparent base of the building allows for public-oriented functions.
In the spring of 2018, builders completed a striking new urban block in Berlin-Kreuzberg, directly opposite the Jewish Museum Berlin. The building is at right angles to the prestigious Lindenstrasse and next to the auction hall of the former Blumengrossmarkt (Wholesale Flower Market).
...