Near the centre of Enschede, in the east of the Netherlands, BDG Architecten together with Hegeman Bouwgroep and RRog landschap en stedenbouw transformed a messy part of the city into a lively residential area with its own identity. A place for new city dwellers.
alternative custom plan
The area around Deurningerstraat has grown organically with a mix of commercial buildings and detached houses. The original plan for the redevelopment, with houses with deep back gardens along the existing street plan, did not meet the needs of the intended residents. In collaboration with the municipality of Enschede, we came up with an alternative strategy as a design and development team, aimed at 'binding and connecting talent to the city'. Enschede had little to offer for workers in the high-tech sector, the hospital and the university. For this target group, we designed a green living environment with robust, spacious city houses, equipped with a patio garden or terrace and a private parking space.
urban village street
The new neighborhood with 23 houses embraces the existing houses on the plot. By drawing a new path diagonally through the plot and building a powerful ensemble around it, we created an urban village street. Close to the hustle and bustle of the center and yet safe and sheltered. This street invites you to live and meet. In addition, it forms the transition between the bustle of the city and the quiet courtyards and private places, where you can retreat to your own domain.
climate-adaptive public space
The atmosphere in the car-free street is optimistic and radiates life. Like the old narrow streets in Italy. It is not without reason that the plan was given the sales title 'Il Villaggio'. The variation in both tree, shrub and perennial structure gives the kinked street the ambiance of an elongated square. The planting of the wadis contributes to the climate-adaptive character of the neighborhood.
harmonious sculpture with a lot of variation
In the sculpture, which is apparently carved from one piece, no home is the same. The design offers something for everyone. Kinks in the street profile, offsets in height, roof terraces, balconies or extensions... it all contributes to the human scale of the plan. The square window openings in warm bronze color vary in size and are more or less recessed in the special brickwork. The used facing bricks come from small residual batches of a brick factory. For this project they were mixed, tumbled and provided with a cement veil. A sustainable application because instead of grinding the bricks into rubble granulate, they are now used as a single batch in a high-quality manner. The irregular structure of the light mixed masonry is reminiscent of an old Tuscan city wall.
