데크 엑세스 타입은 네덜란드 공동주거 프로젝트에서 주로 사용되는 시스템입니다. 계단수를 늘리지 않고도
아파트 유닛의 숫자를 무한히 확장할 수 있는 특징을 가지고 있지요. 우리네 편복도형 아파트를
생각하면 이해가 쉬우실 거에요. 하지만 전용 면적 대비 공용면적이 늘어나 결국은 전용률의 감소와
공사면적이 많아지는 결과를 초래하여 요사이에는 기피하고 있는 추세입니다.
여기 아트리움타워 하우스는 컴팩트한 설계로 이와같은 우려를 종식시키는 동시에
중앙 아트리움으로 연결되는 새로운 타입의 공동주거를 제안합니다.
이러한 컴팩트한 블록의 사이즈는 23미터, 32미터 크기에 8개의 아파트 유닛을
외부 파사드면을 따라 연속시키며 배치합니다. 외부로 밀착된 주거유닛은 자연스럽게
내부에 커다란 아트리움을 형성시킵니다. -이 아트리움은 전체 주거를 연결하는
두개의 계단실과 엘레이터를 계획하여 집중적이며 기능적인 공간 활용을 보여줍니다.-
주 출입구로 부터 연결되는 내부 아트리움은 26미터의 수직으로 공간을 확장시킵니다.
여기에 아트리움은 내부의 온도조절과 자연채광 그리고 자연환기를 도와주는 역활 또한 수행합니다.
이와는 반대로 외부 파사드는 연속적인 뷰포인트를 만들어내는 플로어 투 실링 파사드 디자인을
지향합니다. 이러한 적극적인 공간의 개방은 외부 랜드스케이프를 내부로 유입시키는 동시에
공간의 경계와 뷰의 경계를 모호하여 내외부를 밀착시킵니다. 더욱이 코너에 위치한 파노라마 윈도우는
직각으로 만나는 두면이 오픈되어 드라마틱한 뷰포인트를 만들어 냅니다.
컴팩트하면서도 디자인의 디테일과 기능을 놓치지 않는 아트리움 하우스는
우리네 도심형생활주택의 또다른 패러다임으로 견줄만 한 것 같습니다.
reviewed by SJ
At the dawn of a new era of neo-liberalism in Europe, social housing is once again regarded with increasing indifference. The implicit assumption is that apartments for the lower social classes ought to be small, cramped, dark, badly built and ugly.
Architecture in the sense of a building art hardly plays a role here,
for marketing and spatial qualities are regarded as unimportant and
superfluous. Furthermore, social housing developments are facing great
financial pressures due to a tightening of environmental laws, which
entails a considerable increase in costs for technical equipment and
building components, and negatively affects design opportunities.
Address: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Client: Woningstichting SWZ
Building Size: 6,399sqm
Total building budget: € 5,450,000 (excl. VAT)
Design Team: André Kempe, Oliver Thill, Cornelia Sailer With David van Eck, Peter Graf, Anja Müller, Takashi Nakamura
Urban Planner: De Zwarte Hond, Rotterdam, partner-in-charge Jeroen de Willigen
Supervisor: Jeroen de Willigen en Matthias Rottmann
Photographs: Architektur-Fotografie Ulrich Schwarz
International star-architects barely show any interest in the topic. Accordingly, very few alternatives (to standard solutions) are being produced which, by becoming showcases, could act as catalysts to break out of the recent stasis.
The Hiphouse project in Zwolle presented Atelier Kempe Thill with a welcome opportunity to fundamentally question the assignment ‘social housing’. Largely due to the client’s ambition and the active support of urban planners, a prototypical project could be realized without exceeding a typical Dutch standard budget for comparable projects. A radical minimization of architectural means and a visible assertion of the processes and technologies of the building process helped to realize a maximum of living quality.
Glass Tower Centralized Typology: An Alternative to the Deck-Access Typology
The deck-access typology is the most common form of multi-story social
housing in the Netherlands, because a large number of apartments can be
connected to a limited number of stairwells. Despite the social stigma
this typology has come to represent, it remains an almost inevitable
solution. Due to its extreme cost-efficiency it is still being employed
today in large numbers. The very compact building typology realized
through the central circulation in Zwolle offers an economic and
competitive alternative.
The building block, measuring 23m x 32m and providing 8 units per
floor, has a very limited facade surface in relation to its floor area;
this favourably affects building costs and enables the high quality
detailing of the facade. The housing units are organized around a
central core containing a double stair and an elevator. The plan layout
allocates the larger apartments to the spatially interesting corners,
thus creating apartments with double orientation.
The smaller studio apartments either face east or west, guaranteeing
optimum sunlight for all apartments. To compensate for its volumetric
compactness, the building’s surface is consistently glazed. Anodized
aluminium profiles hold the high quality solar-protection glazing to
form the facade. Depending on the viewer’s position the building appears
to be covered by a transparent skin or a reflective surface;
furthermore, sliding doors provide generously dimensioned facade
openings.
As a whole, a very delicate visual balance is achieved. The functional grid of the windows and the underlying construction form a rigid architectural order, which is counterbalanced by a spontaneous collage of colourful apartment interiors. In a display of the complexities of city life a vital and optimistic image emerges, striking up intensive communication with the neighbourhood. This image is collective as well as individual, for it is – consciously or unconsciously – formed with the active participation of every inhabitant. The ‘building in use’ therefore essentially becomes the facade.
Circulation as Collective Space: The Atrium
The arrangement of apartments along the volume’s perimeter creates the
opportunity to insert a central atrium at no additional cost. A 5.4m
high entrance hall gives access to this space, which measures a vertical
26m and is illuminated by a skylight. At the core of the building, the
atrium lends an unexpected spatial generosity, which stands in
surprising contrast to the external appearance.
Due to the limited budget the central atrium was coherently designed in the rugged aesthetics of the unfinished. The concrete walls remain unfinished, the floor slabs receive a coating of acoustic plaster, handrails are merely galvanized and simple industrial light fittings are mounted directly onto the walls. As a result, a complex spatial entity emerges, deliberately displaying, but also celebrating, the ‘new poverty’ of contemporary building.
By its generosity the circulation space becomes an area for social interaction between inhabitants and adequately expresses the collective of an expedient alliance of tenants.
Panorama and Light: The Emancipation of Social Housing
Upon entering the apartments it becomes evident that even in social
housing real luxury should be indispensable. The units are very well
lit, with minimal circulation areas and large living spaces with
freestanding kitchen blocks. Loft spaces are not an exclusive form of
living reserved for a well-to-do elite, but are also realizable in the
context of social housing. An emancipation of the lower income classes
will last but not least have to be achieved through an increase in the
quality of individual housing.
The floor-to-ceiling windows give the apartments a feel of suspended landscape plateaus; the natural environment becomes a part of the space and expands the interior beyond its physical boundaries. Rain, sun, clouds, wind and greenery determine the atmosphere of the interior.
This effect is amplified when the large doors are slid open, transforming the rooms into airy terraces. Gone is the feeling of constriction prevalent in traditional social housing. A maximum of spatial richness is possible with a minimum of means. It therefore doesn’t come as a surprise when a tenant says: ‘Never have I seen such beautiful sunsets as I do from my apartment.” It merely seems like a logical result of a rigorous conception of the apartment as architectural space.
from archdaily