In the east of Amsterdam, the Municipality of Amsterdam is building a complete new urban area: Zeeburgereiland. Located between the A10, the Piet-Hein tunnel, Amsterdam East and Amsterdam North, the area is well connected to the city and surrounding regions. The next few years there will be several new neighbourhoods developed in Zeeburgereiland, amongst others the Sporthelden neighbourhood with care facilities and shops for more than 10.000 residents. Paul de Ruiter Architects designs two housing blocks with 150 apartments in the southeast of this new neighbourhood. The large diversity of houses activates the area and creates social sustainability.
Diverse living qualities for a dynamic housing community The public space is the starting point of the design. We therefore made up an ensemble of 2 building blocks, with one block of purchased houses and one block of rental houses that have different sizes. Between these blocks a safe, green outdoor space emerges, where a mix of young and old, single and families, gathers. We placed the parking garage under the ground to create more space for the green utilities. The quality of the outdoor space will significantly increase this way.
The living building With our design we try to increase the quality of the public space by means of a large diversity of green facilities. The residents will consequently go outside more, which stimulates the social sustainability. All the houses in the plinth have a separate entrance in the green façade, with a private outdoor space. Besides the green outdoor spaces, we activate the plinth of both buildings by positioning the houses encircled. The main facilities are positioned in the heart of the building. The light panorama apartments of the upper levels are also surrounded by outdoor spaces, this creates a lively façade. We also use the roof surfaces on the several levels to create green outdoor spaces.