Residential Building Vlugtlaan
- Residential
Residential Building Vlugtlaan is a complex with a social character designed according to the principles of the Western Garden Cities in Amsterdam: ‘light, air and spatiality’. We designed this residential building for VORM Ontwikkeling as part of a feasibility study. The building has 90 apartments in the medium rental segment and can be built in two phases. The building forms a strategic link between a shopping street at the front and a park-like setting at the back. By stimulating social encounters in the plinth and core, it embraces the “neighborhood principle”; an ordering concept to stimulate a sense of community.
Social character
At the heart of the residential building, a void provides daylight and spaciousness. All apartments have a two-sided orientation, something quite unusual for a compact residential building with relatively small apartments. By placing the kitchen with an open visual relationship to the core, we want to encourage social encounters or a sense of home and community. No dark chilly circulation space, but an entrance that adds quality to the apartments. In addition, the open core also provides a highly efficient GFA/UFA ratio. Combined with a smart grid system, utility shafts in each corner and a facade that is independent of the layout of the apartments, the building is also extremely flexible.
Characteristics of the 'Western Garden City' in Amsterdam
The postwar reconstruction period was a time of optimism and modernization. New materials and production methods made their appearance, as did the new spatial, repetitive and ‘ultra-green’ form of urbanism. The motto became “light, air and speciality” and we follow these principles in a contemporary way. The architecture is unpretentious and characterized by a separation of construction and infill, making the structure clearly visible. The clear concrete facade system is filled with warm wooden accents for the loggias and window frames.
