On the car-free inner courtyard of Het Funen, a former shunting and factory site, several residential towers have been realized. Three of them—Syntax, Myriad, and Tunga—were designed by Dick van Gameren architecten. Syntax and Tunga are two identical three-story apartment buildings on the edge of the Funenpark. Myriad, on the other hand, has six stories and contains 22 residences consisting of: twelve single-family homes and ten smaller two- and three-room apartments. The ground-floor maisonettes each have an outdoor space. The other six family homes stand as detached houses on the roof. On the outside, you can see that different housing typologies have been created through the use of various materials such as glass and brick.
For the third consecutive year, the Funenpark features in the top ten of the Amsterdam New-Build Prize. Characteristic of the area are residential blocks scattered seemingly at random in the greenery, with a wide variety of colors and shapes.
This time, three buildings designed by architect Dick van Gameren have been selected: two smaller ones with eleven apartments each (Syntax and Tunga), and an unusual stacked structure (Myriad): six two-story homes on the ground floor, then two levels with ten apartments, and literally on top of that, six "detached" maisonettes.
Dick van Gameren (47) was one of the architects approached by the creator of the Funenpark plan, Frits van Dongen, who wanted a great diversity of striking buildings. "I had to combine large family homes and smaller apartments in a single block," Van Gameren explains. "It was complex, but we succeeded in translating that brief into an efficient design."
“Actually, they have become single-family homes right in the middle of the city, even detached ones on the roof. That is how you should build homes in the city in the coming years: very compact, but differentiated and not too large-scale.”
"This is the largest residential block in Funenpark, but it wasn't allowed to become too dominant," explains Menno Molenaar (32) of project developer Heijmans. "That's why Van Gameren divided it into smaller pieces. And those detached maisonettes on the fifth floor, we hadn't seen those before. For those, we constantly had to find new construction-technical solutions."
Yvette de Roos (37) and her boyfriend shelled out 357,000 euros for their two-story, 105-square-meter home. They did not buy a garage space (45,000 euros) with it. What is special about the Funenpark is that it is a piece of the city without leasehold, on private land; the former shunting yard was purchased directly from the NS.
“I came from a small apartment in the Staatsliedenbuurt, my boyfriend from the Spaarndammerbuurt,” Yvette de Roos says. “We were looking for a ground-floor home with a garden, right in the middle of the city. We also considered Haarlem, but the prices there are steep too. This house offers the space we want, and this car-free park is a bullseye. The children can easily go outside.”
The residents gave their project an 8.5 out of 10 as a grade, and the jury members completely agree: "A nice home with a good layout." Living upstairs with the bedrooms and bathroom downstairs didn't appeal much to Riet de Graaf (66), but the other jury members actually found it attractive. And William Kobossen (45) clearly found the two smaller blocks, with only apartments, less exciting. "But that park concept is really very nice."
By the way, the expert jury that awards the Zuiderkerkprijs did not nominate this project on Funenpark. Two years ago, Funenpark finished in eighth place for the Amsterdam New-Build Prize, and fifth last year. And now...
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