Block C is one of the three new buildings on the site of the former Wilhelmina Gasthuis dating from the 1960s. The master plan for the location, created by the Belgian architect Jo Crepain, is based on three detached new buildings that, unlike the enormous scale of the demolished hospital, would once again align with the building lines and scale of the nineteenth-century surroundings.
The two already completed buildings accommodate social housing, private-sector apartments, and a psychiatric care institution. The third building, Block C, is a 'Solid,' a concept devised by the client with sustainability in mind. The spaces in a Solid are delivered as structural shells, allowing the users to give them a residential and/or working function themselves.
In Block C, this concept has been elaborated by designing a series of spaces without fixed, predefined functions. The spaces invite a wide variety of uses. For example, the upper floors can accommodate penthouses, but also offices, restaurants, or childcare facilities. Each of the floors features different outdoor spaces: balconies, a courtyard as an extension of the street, or roof gardens.
The name is as prosaic as a car model: Solid 11 WG East Block C. Yet it is a remarkable building, there on the edge of the former Wilhelmina Gasthuis site. No rules, no obstacles, go right ahead. With all the attendant advantages and disadvantages.
The Solid is the brainchild of Frank Bijdendijk, former director of housing association Het Oosten (now Stadgenoot). It was his idea to erect a building that would be delivered as bare as possible and within which all functions are possible. Bijdendijk had been inspired by canal houses, which over the centuries had continually changed their purpose: from warehouse to home, from home to office.
The first Solids are now in place; one on IJburg and one on Eerste Constantijn Huygensstraat, where the ugly Swammerdam Institute used to stand. That Solid in West contains 28 rental homes, fifteen of which are for social housing tenants. Anyone could bid at an auction to acquire square meters; the minimum bid was six euros per month in rent for a square meter.
“We had to obtain experimental status from the national government and the municipality,” explains Gerard Anderiesen (58), executive at Stadgenoot. “It is incredibly difficult, because under existing laws and regulations, it makes quite a difference whether a building has a residential or commercial zoning designation.”
Bart Mijnster (30) lives in a social housing unit with his girlfriend Anke. “I had bid 650 euros, pretty much the maximum for social housing, and for that I got a bare 68-square-meter space. My parents saw this building being constructed and tipped me off about it.”
That 'shell' can be taken quite literally. "There was only a meter cupboard, a water connection, and a heating manifold. So it's completely up to yourself what you do with that space. It is more than three meters high, so you can conceal all sorts of things under the floor and behind a suspended ceiling."
The building, designed by British architect Tony Fretton, features an exceptional quality of construction. “The requirement was that it is guaranteed to stand for two hundred years,” says Kees Bakker (53), site manager at Coen Hagedoorn Bouwgroep. “We have never had a project like this. Everything had to be made from the best materials available on the market. The building is heated using geothermal energy from a well 180 meters deep; on top of the roof is a system that recovers solar heat.”
The big question, of course, is whether the experiment was also a success. The answer: well, not quite. Just under half of the space was auctioned off as housing. The rest, some three thousand square meters, will be filled by hotels.
"That is more than we had thought beforehand," Anderiesen admits, "and it causes quite a bit of tension. The residents are also bothered by the fact that many renters are still spending a long time building themselves. The last hotel was only finished just before this past summer."
Indeed, the complaint that virtually all residents noted during the survey on their residential satisfaction concerns the hotels and their guests. They mainly mention nuisance caused by noise (and sometimes the smell of weed). Nevertheless, they are otherwise very satisfied, giving it an average rating of 8.4.
However, the five jury members who selected the ten projects had their reservations. "Wonderful materials have been used," judges Jolanda Koeman (52), "but the fact that there are so many hotels in the building is a serious issue." Rachmat Botter (34) even believes that for this reason, it does not belong in the top ten. It takes quite a bit of deliberation before the jury ultimately places the Solid among the nominees anyway—because of the unique concept.
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