At the end of the Zeeburgerdijk, where a loading quay was formerly situated on the discharge canal, there is now an apartment building made of glass and concrete. On the ground floor, alongside the entrance hall, are five commercial spaces and a transparent storage block. Beneath the entire building is a parking garage with 42 parking spaces.
In the urban design plan, the building was seen as part of a newly to be designed gateway to the area behind it and therefore had to be designed in conjunction with the new construction on the other side of the bridge. The building has a structure in which an eight-story tower next to the bridge abutment is connected to a four-story low-rise building along the Zeeburgerdijk. The tower contains two or four apartments per floor connected to a central stairwell with elevator. The low-rise building consists of maisonettes accessed by an interior corridor that is connected to the stairwell on the third floor.
The narrow and deep apartments in the low-rise section on the south and north facades are made entirely of glass. Floor-to-ceiling aluminum sliding doors allow daylight and air to penetrate deep inside. The loggias on the south facade of the low-rise serve as glazed outdoor spaces and can be enclosed for greater peace and privacy. The end facades of the building are clad in frosted glass, thereby emphasizing the all-sided character of the building. The various residential floors are separated by prefabricated concrete edges that cantilever out to balcony depth at the tower. The resulting wings emphasize the vertical character of the high-rise.
For Allard Berting (41), one thing was certain: he wanted to continue living in his neighborhood, the Eastern Docklands. So when he passed a large sign offering new homes for sale during a bike ride to Flevopark, he was immediately interested.
That was in early 2004, construction had yet to begin. But the location appealed to Berting: on the Zeeburgerdijk along the Lozingskanaal, close to the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal.
Berting: I lived on the C. van Eesterenlaan back then, but the high rent bothered me more and more. Here in the Loswal, I was able to buy an apartment on the top floor of 160 square meters for 330,000 euros. That is, however, without buying out the ground lease for a hundred thousand.
Berting overlooks water, lots of water: I am extremely happy with the view. The only disappointment, he is willing to share, is the combination in one building of 26 owner-occupied homes and 16 rental homes, which cost 850 euros a month (without a garage). Don't get me wrong, he says, there are some very nice people among the renters. I definitely do not want to generalize. But still, renters treat their building differently than buyers do.
The residents gave it a grade of eight out of ten. However, in their comments, the combination of renters and buyers in a single building also emerged as a drawback. On the other hand, they generally praised the space and light in their homes. This had also caught the eye of the jury tasked with selecting the top ten. A nice, open building, Ans van der Hall thought. It looks futuristic, according to Pablo Herrera modern, daring, with lots of glass. Gert-Jan van Rooij still found the building lacked identity. And the jury did not like the hallways, with their low ceilings. De Loswal was designed by a team from UNStudio led by Ben van Berkel. We are not really known as an architectural firm for residential housing, acknowledges Harm Wassink (44), the responsible architect, certainly not in Amsterdam.
Indeed, when it comes to Van Berkel, you are more likely to think of the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. But the firm is also responsible for the renovation of the Jewish Historical Museum, for example. The Loswal has a long history. UNStudio was already approached in 1999, when the housing association De Dageraad intended to build social housing there.
After that, everything changed: following a merger, De Dageraad became De Alliantie, and the Amsterdam housing market demanded different types of homes. As a result, the project ultimately became a block of 42 apartments for sale and private-sector rent.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the bridge to the Th. K. van Lohuizenlaan, a residential block by the architectural firm Claus en Kaan had already arisen, which Wassink's design had to match.
Hence the striking image of horizontal concrete lines with a lot of glass in between. And I was faced with the specific problem of the location, Wassink explains. I couldn't connect with the surroundings, with a nursing home on one side and an industrial estate behind it. The latter forced a lot of research in the area of sound insulation. And the building has a special ventilation system.
Still, I think I was able to give the building its own character, Wassink says. It has become cheerful and bright, with an optimistic look.
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