In 2000, it became clear that new construction would be permitted at this location on Rozenstraat. At that time, the site was used as an entrance to a former school building and featured a parking shed and a transformer substation.
In cooperation with the Municipality of Amsterdam, the preconditions within which the project was to take shape were determined. Due to the former school building in the inner area, the building could only be 9.90 meters deep, while the zoning plan required that the building height could not exceed eleven meters. The street width is approximately 32 meters. To ensure that the building fits into the rhythm of the street, it has been cut into six parts. The six segments are executed in variegated masonry, with each segment differing slightly. A diversity of housing types has been developed. The ground-floor dwellings in the basement and on the ground floor are accessed from Rozenstraat. The upper apartments on the three floors are accessible via a central staircase on the street side.
The interior area is designed as a communal courtyard for the residents and the users of the school building.
“It was all sorted within a day.” Linda van der Zouw (43) is still surprised by it. She suddenly had to leave a home on Raadhuisstraat, and was already starting to panic. She could have moved to Zuidoost, but desperately wanted to stay in her own neighborhood. Until a friend said: “There is something for you on Rozenstraat.” A block of 23 new homes had been put up there. “There were still a few upper apartments available,” Van der Zouw says, “when the real estate agent suddenly said: ‘Another ground-floor one is becoming available, by the inner courtyard.’ A very pleasant place to live.” It is small, certainly: 43 square meters, plus a ten-square-meter storage room. But she paid only 189,000 euros for this home in the Jordaan, and for that amount, it included a complete kitchen and bathroom. “For this location, the price is really amazing.”
The residents are very pleased with the use of space, the finishing, and especially that communal courtyard. They gave it a 9.2 rating. The jury is also impressed, particularly by that inner courtyard and the beautiful wooden finish of the rear facade. On the street side, De Roos Henne Roelvink feels the block does not fit in with the rest of the neighborhood, but the other jury members disagree. "A very nice, quiet facade," says Johanna Bruin. "The architect looked closely at the classic type of Amsterdam homes," believes Steven Delva.
The architects are Donald Jansen and Rolf Bekker of DRK Architecten, brought in by Irene Vasseur (35) of Minerva Vastgoed. “We had seen an old, dilapidated shed here and thought: we have to do something with that,” says Vasseur. “DRK is very good at inner-city innovative building. The building fits into the whole, but is still clearly new. And the idea of that shared courtyard behind it also came from them.”
Vasseur also brought in Plat Bouwbedrijf: "We had previously noticed that they are very good at handling difficult projects." And difficult it was. "We had built in the city center before," explains Jaap Plat (62), "but this is the narrowest street we have ever worked in. We had to build a basement under the entire block, which made it completely complicated. That also caused delays."
"We knew it was a project full of risks," Vasseur said, "so we had generously estimated the construction time. And then there was also a Nuon switch house in the way. But now we are very satisfied with the result. Our goal was to deliver good quality in collaboration with the architect and contractor and to put ourselves in the residents' shoes." That seems to have succeeded, because Van der Zouw was very surprised when she was even allowed to choose the door handles. "It has to be solid and sustainable," Vasseur explains, "but above all, personal."
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