At the southern tip of the Wisselspoor redevelopment area in Utrecht, Arons en Gelauff architects have designed a striking residential block that combines inner-city densification with clear references to the area’s railway heritage. The industrial buildings, with their factory gates and sawtooth roofs, inspired the architects to create a robust volume, again featuring a gate and a jagged, entirely rust-coloured façade.
Wisselspoor 10 is a double city block comprising 183 homes for students, first-time tenants and those purchasing their first social housing property. In doing so, the project addresses the urgent need for affordable housing in highly urbanised areas.

Distinctive silhouette
The design brings together two originally separate volumes. The intervention to merge them into a single architectural whole has resulted in a distinctive silhouette, an eye-catching feature at the tip of the Wisselspoor area that points towards Utrecht Central Station. 
The ten-storey tower block provides accommodation for 112 students. The section housing the starter flats comprises seven storeys. At its heart lies a patio with a garden, stretching from the first floor to the glass roof. On the ground floor, maisonettes feature a private garden overlooking the park. Above these are pointed balconies, recessed into the façade, facing the sun and offering views over the park and the city.

Industrial DNA 
The railway heritage plays a central role in the entire area’s transformation and has also inspired the design of Wisselspoor 10. The existing factory gates are echoed here: a diagonal passageway connects the square and the park, with the entrances to all the apartments situated on either side. The gate and porticos are light and airy thanks to their height and the glass walls, and the whole space feels like a covered square. In both entrance halls, a green spiral staircase catches the eye. 

The sawtooth roofs of the Wagenmakerij have been interpreted as a vertical sawtooth façade, featuring notches in two sizes. The façade is then clad with a skin of rust-coloured expanded metal, in two mesh sizes and rhythmically arranged in two directions. The cladding opens up at the long, glazed sides of the balconies and at the floor-to-ceiling windows. As a result, the building presents itself alternately as transparent and as solid. The building’s concrete plinths are the same colour as the metal.

Species-specific nesting boxes have been integrated into the façades. The Spoorpark will be landscaped with native plants. Next to Wisselspoor 10, a wadi will be created to collect rainwater and allow it to drain slowly, whilst serving as a microhabitat for insects and amphibians. The whole site contributes to climate adaptation and urban biodiversity.

“A wonderful project: designing the eye-catching building on the city side of Wisselspoor. We thoroughly enjoyed immersing ourselves in both the past and the future of this site and working on a building that has just as bold and versatile a character as the residents it is intended for.”  
– Floor Arons, Arons en Gelauff architecten

Wisselspoor
Wisselspoor 10 is situated next to Wisselspoor 9, which was also designed by Arons and Gelauff, in collaboration with Office Winhov and BETA. Together with Block 6 (Office Winhov) and the Wagenmakerij (Zecc), they form Phase 4 of Wisselspoor. The entire redevelopment follows Studioninedots’ Cityplot concept. Within this, the buildings take on an increasingly urban scale and greater cohesion from north to south.
Synchroon and Van Wijnen are the client and contractor for all three residential blocks in Phase 4.

Team:
Architect Arons en Gelauff architecten, Amsterdam
Lead/project architects Floor Arons, Lennart Snoek, Jan Bart Bouwhuis
Client Synchroon
Contractor Van Wijnen Rosmalen/Utrecht
Construction Goudstikker De Vries
Consultants Visscher Bouw en Installatie advies, 
Cauberg Huygen (fire, acoustics, building physics)
Installaties Linthorst, Breman
Façade Metadecor
Urban design Studioninedots
Supervision Albert Herder
Landscape Delva Landscape Architects
Student housing by SSH Utrecht
Photography Sebastian van Damme
Drawings Arons en Gelauff architecten