Amsterdam

Lycka, 118 social housing apartments

Name: Team Paul de Vroom + Sputnik
Price range: $

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Stacked 'woonloodsen'

Within a couple of years, the area around the railway station Amsterdam Sloterdijk will undergo a tremendous transformation. Until now the area was a typical conventional business district with large office buildings. In the future the area will transform into a mixed use urban district with additional housing and leisure programs. The plot for our design is marked “Kavel O, blok 9B” and lies next to the elevated railway tracks called Hemboog. Kavel O will consist of 8 apartment buildings around a pocket park. In order to make the scale jump between the large office towers in the area to a housing scale, the urban planners of the City of Amsterdam introduced the term “woonloods” (housing-warehouse); A block with an intermediate scale and an industrial look.

The brief and the building envelope called for a 10.000 sqm tower of around 50m high. We developed a design concept in which the tower is built up from 5 woonloodsen, each with their own expression.

The building houses a variety of specific housing types of different sizes. For each of these types a special woonloods has been tailor made to fit. A logical and pragmatic method that lead to 5 autonomous woonloodsen with different measurements. By stacking them around a central core a horizontally articulated tower appeared with roof terraces on different levels in the building. The differences between the types and interiors of the woonloodsen is expressed in the design of their facades.

Natuurlijke duurzaamheid #

In order to turn a tower into a sustainable building, all registers have to be opened. Given the limited footprint of the building, there is little roof surface for water storage, solar panels and greenery. Nevertheless, Lycka is a sustainable and nature-inclusive building. A number of drastic measures have been taken for this.

Rainwater is buffered on the roofs to prevent the sewer from becoming overloaded during downpours. During a rain shower, the water is first collected on the roofs and later gradually drained. Part of the rainwater is stored to provide the green roofs with water in dry times.

The planting of the roof garden and the green facades is precisely tailored to their orientation. The plants on the southern sunny side differ from those on the shady north side. The diversity of vegetation attracts insects and birds, resulting in a rich variety of plants and animals.

To meet the energy demand, solar panels have been placed on the top roof of the building, supplemented by panels on the roof of the Eigen Haard office on the other side of the Arlandaweg. The building has a central HRV unit. The ventilation systems in the apartments are set up in such a way that it is possible to open the windows in every home.

The proximity of Sloterdijk station has made it possible to fully focus on public transport and bicycle use and to create a car-free building. There are no parking spaces for cars, but there is a large communal bicycle parking in the building.