A special winner this year: exclusive and sustainable living. The fourth Amsterdam New Construction Award goes to Buitenveldert.
No, it is by no means an average example of Amsterdam housing where this year's Amsterdam New Construction Prize is going. All the more remarkable that Amsterdammers gave this project the most votes.
Personally, they also hadn't expected this award at all, Bart Mispelblom Beyer and Charlotte ten Dijke of Tangram Architects and director Pieter Wassenaar of Hillen & Roosen, the client and builder of Crystal Court. "Really not," Ten Dijke assures at the Theaterfabriek, where alderman Maarten van Poelgeest presented the award in the middle of the housing fair De Grote Amsterdamse Housewarming. "This is a suspicious segment, after all, for homebuyers with a lot of money."
Wassenaar is "proud as a peacock": after all, his company has won the Amsterdam New Construction Award for the second time, following the first award in 2007. And this, a year after a bankruptcy and a restart. "That's a great boost for us." The previous three times, the award also went to projects with owner-occupied homes, but with what were then considered more average prices (by Amsterdam standards). Last year, spacious family homes, four stories and a large terrace, on IJburg for six hundred thousand; in 2008, apartments in the Osdorpse Schutterstoren for half that price.
Crystal Court, an eccentric sculpture next to the Gelderlandplein shopping center with 36 very spacious apartments, is intended for the top of the market. A 180-square-meter home for 750,000 euros, not including the 60,000 euros for the parking space, that's the idea. The shape of the complex is also far from ordinary: four towers with jutting-out boxes, entirely clad in wood, and in between them a tall glass hall with water features, greenery, and fountains that extend beyond the glass walls. It was meant to be something special, but, explains architect Mispelblom Beyer: "When we showed the model, the client had to swallow hard." The job became even more complicated when Hillen & Roosen went bankrupt last year. That's why the glass atrium is still not entirely finished. But the company made a restart, the homes have been delivered, and the residents are very satisfied; their average rating was 8.2.
The five judges also felt that Crystal Court belonged among the ten nominees, although they had their reservations. Because for so much money, they believed, the residents should have had a completely finished building. But the jury noted that it was good that such special projects were being built in Amsterdam for the happy few who have a lot of money to spend: a unique concept with very beautiful materials, a showpiece that still fits beautifully into the neighborhood. That was also the intention, MispelblomBeyer and Ten Dijke explain. "We wanted to build sustainably within the urban fabric. And the view into the park has been preserved thanks to the glass atrium."
The Amsterdam Newbouw Prize is unusual in other respects this year as well. Not neighborhoods with large-scale new construction – IJburg, Nieuw-West – but a quiet neighborhood like Buitenveldert stands out, with two projects no less. The much more classic apartment complex on Kalfjeslaan achieved eighth place. The jury also did not expect this. The jury members had expected that the sub-project VOC Cour by architect Jeroen Schipper on Westerdokseiland would receive the most votes; it ultimately came in third place. Westerdokseiland also features twice in the top ten; Westerkaap in seventh. If the jury had had its way – now they can present it – Aquamarijn should have won, the last of four residential towers on Jan van Zutphenstraat in Osdorp. After counting the votes, this residential building finished in fourth place.
The fact that voters gave the second prize to Koningshof Waterwoningen in the Bijlmer is remarkable for a completely different reason. Never before has a housing project in Zuidoost been nominated for the Amsterdam New Construction Prize and immediately scored high. Koningshof was discussed at the same time as Crystal Court in PS Wonen, under the motto 'two extremes'. This involves a row of 22 houses of two stories, one hundred square meters, with a terrace on the water. Simply and efficiently executed, a beautiful design by architect Neelu Boparai, for which the happy residents had to pay 232,000 euros.
