Living begins before the front door
Dorpshart Herkenbosch is a residential building comprising fifteen social rental apartments, located at the corner of Europalaan-Centrum and Stationsweg. Part of a larger residential development consisting mainly of ground-oriented housing, the building introduces a different scale at this prominent corner. The challenge was therefore not simply to accommodate fifteen apartments, but to create a building that responds to the scale of the village while adding quality to everyday life.
In the original masterplan, a parking area was planned directly behind the apartment building. As a result, the galleries—and therefore the residents’ daily route home—would have overlooked parked cars. For MR. STIR, this became a reason to reconsider the given conditions rather than simply accept them. By reorganising the parking into a more compact layout, space was freed up for a collective green garden.
This intervention beyond the original footprint fundamentally changed the basis of the design. Instead of becoming a functional circulation zone facing a car park, the rear of the building became its collective heart. Garden, stairs, galleries and entrances now form a sequence of shared spaces between the public realm and the privacy of the home.
The shared metres
Social housing inevitably places a strong emphasis on efficiency and affordability. Dorpshart explores how the spaces outside the individual dwelling can contribute just as much to the quality of living.
The galleries are deliberately wider than strictly required for circulation, creating room for views, informal encounters and moments of pause. The stairs are designed as part of this everyday living environment as well. Secondary staircases connect the collective garden directly to the galleries, allowing them to function not merely as escape routes, but as natural parts of residents’ daily movement through the building.
At the central staircase, the gallery curves outwards. Exactly where different routes meet, additional space is created—to pass one another, to stop for a conversation, and to provide a degree of distance from the entrances to the apartments.
Circulation is therefore treated as more than residual space for moving from A to B. The journey from street to front door becomes part of living itself.
Proximity and privacy
Collective living requires opportunities for encounter, but equally the possibility to withdraw. The two sides of the building therefore respond differently to their surroundings.
On the garden side, the building encourages interaction. Galleries, stairs and entrances share the same green space, allowing residents to become part of one another’s everyday routes. Towards the street, the architecture creates more distance. The positioning of balconies, deep window reveals and staggered openings reduces direct views into the apartments, while creating varied—and sometimes diagonal—views out towards the surroundings.
The transition between collective and private space is therefore not resolved in a single way, but designed according to the specific relationship between dwelling, building and context.
From village to dwelling
At three storeys, Dorpshart introduces a larger scale than the surrounding ground-oriented houses. The architecture gradually breaks this scale down: from building to volume, from volume to dwelling, and finally to balcony, window and entrance.
Changes in height, recessed façade sections, balconies, deep reveals and roof forms divide the building into smaller elements. As a result, Dorpshart remains legible as a single building marking the corner, while the individual homes remain recognisable within the whole.
This reduction in scale also informs the architectural expression. Red brick and matching red mortar give the building a strong material basis, while green window frames and steelwork, coral-red accents and a light terrazzo plinth articulate individual elements. Colour and material are not applied as decoration afterwards; they help make the different scales of the building visible.
Dorpshart demonstrates that social housing does not have to be anonymous or restrained. Even within a rational and affordable building task, there is room for tactility, identity and joy.
Everyday living
Ultimately, Dorpshart is more than fifteen apartments. It is also the garden residents pass through on their way home, the staircase they choose to take each day, the gallery where neighbours meet, the space outside the front door and the view from within the home.
The quality of collective living is not created behind the front door alone. It is in the everyday spaces in between that architecture gains meaning.
