The Leeuwenhoek cluster in the nineteenth-century Swammerdam neighborhood consists of eighteen new family homes in three different locations. The position and autonomy of the three units have created a new coherence within the fragmented environment of new construction and renovation from various periods. This coherence is palpable on an architectural, urban planning, and landscape level. The design not only reverses the situation within the block around Leeuwenhoekstraat, transforming the rear into a space with the character of a courtyard, but also has an impact far beyond it.
The design of the three building units is inspired by the typology commonly found in this neighborhood: a stacked arrangement of a ground-floor and an upper-floor dwelling, both with their front doors facing the street. Next to the front door of the ground-floor dwelling is a large glass facade, set in a bluestone frame, behind which the living kitchens are located. The three floors above, in keeping with the neighboring properties, each have three tall windows spaced equally apart. The facades are finished with an abstracted cornice made of aluminum. Particularly striking is the use of purple brick with tile pattern masonry. The wooden doors and frames, tall windows, and natural stone plinths give the whole a stately appearance. This integrates the existing city without resorting to a mere repetition of what's already there.
Five of the ten new construction projects competing for the New Construction Prize are buildings that have been "stitched" into the existing old city. The Leeuwenhoek Cluster is a good example.
In Leeuwenhoekstraat, Eerste Boerhaavestraat, and Swammerdamstraat, a 19th-century neighborhood in Oost/Watergraafsmeer, nine new homes have been built between the existing structures, each comprising a double downstairs unit and a double upstairs unit. The residents are very happy with the result; they gave an average rating of 9.
Not only for their homes, but also for the playground that has emerged from closing off Leeuwenhoekstraat to traffic: "A children's paradise in the middle of the city."
They owe this to the conviction of Erna van Sambeek from Van Sambeek and Van Veen Architects in Amsterdam. "The location plays a very important role," explains the designer. "Instead of a street with fences, an attractive courtyard was to be created, an oasis of calm. The borough played a very good role in this."
Furthermore, she consciously chose not to demolish the entire neighborhood, but rather to renovate parts of it and build new structures in between. This was achieved through good collaboration with the client, De Principaal. "The strength of the plan clearly lies in its coherence."
So she decided not to build apartments, but family homes, in the middle of the city, with good outdoor space. "The eat-in kitchens facing the street contribute to the liveliness," according to Van Sambeek, "and the terraces at the rear are raised to the square."
Nicole Frank (42) lives with her husband and two children, aged five and seven, in a ground-floor apartment. At the end of 2005, she paid €342,500 for 120 square meters of living space and a backyard. "But we use the inner courtyard more than the garden," she says.
There is little car traffic, and we are now working to make our street completely car-free once a parking garage for the Amstel campus is built nearby.
"It's just a quiet little neighborhood in the city," Frank said. Children are playing in the square, their parents are sitting in the sun, and barbecues are going. "But at the same time, you have the hustle and bustle of the city nearby, De Pijp, Oost, the Center, public transport."
Frank and her family lived in the Waterleidingwijk in Westerpark, but their eighty-square-meter apartment became too small. "We also looked at IJburg, but I found the population there to be too much of a monoculture."
The homes are characterized by a limestone facade on the ground floor and brickwork above, all with large windows. "I wanted sustainable materials," explains architect Van Sambeek. "I applied that on a powerful scale."
The jury was impressed by it.
"This is very well integrated," judged Gert-Jan van Rooij. "This is convincing. This isn't something that was already there." And Pablo Herrera, an architect himself, praised the quality he perceived. Ans van der Hall noted the high ceilings downstairs, which the residents also mentioned multiple times in their survey forms as a great advantage. They are also very pleased with the natural light. Notably, there is no hall or vestibule; you literally step from the street directly into the living kitchen.
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