Situation and public space

The project is situated along the South quay of the IJ and forms a multiform space together with the Barentszplein, the Silodam and the  Stenen Hoofd . The Kop van Diemenstraat plays a strategic role in this urban context.The volume of the building is stretched in such a way that the Barentszplein becomes spatially defined. The building is partly lifted to reveal important views between the harbour and the city, while the sunken square beneath offers an interesting public space along the water. From the harbour-side the view towards the Northside of the IJ is continued. The street façade is continued and the head of the building forms a specific stature on the site.

Program, organization and expression.

The program consists of 41 selling apartments and 6 social rental apartments  (4.289 m² ), 20 units of office spaces (2010 m² ) and parking-garage with 194 spaces. The parking-garage consists of 2 floors, one floor for the neighborhood and one for the building itself.

Flexibility casco: 7,5 x 11,5 x 3,1 m

The extraordinary measurements of the apartments and office spaces, the width of 7,5 meters and the spacious internal height of 3,1 meters, make a large diversity of flexible and interchangeable housing and office spaces possible. In this way the dwellings and office space are not only organized together but as well typological interwoven with each other. The width of 7,5 meters also enables three parking spaces. The courtyard is 10 meter wide, together with the depth of the apartments on both sides, makes an efficient parking depth of 32 meters with two lanes and 4 parking spaces. The flexible plan of the housing makes a variety of housing schemes possible, like 'doorzon', diagonal and front- back situation. Within the partitioning wall a core of 1,2 meters is designed to combine office units.

Material en detail

The choice of prefabrication for the building is made because the site conditions, the intensively used road and the location along the water. Without scaffolding the building and facade can be fabricated with a crane situated in the courtyard of the building. The concrete sandwich elements have the measurements of one apartment. The cloqué forms a continuous pattern wrapped around the building. The pattern of lines dividing the panels discontinues the repetition of the elements. The diagonal seam of 10 mm in depth runs over the facet-shaped concrete elements dividing the upper part which is polished and the lower part which is finished with acid.