Rhoon arose along the dike structure around the polders in the region. The Dorpsdijk has formed the boundary of the Albrandswaard since 1411. Until +/- 1960 there are only houses “on the dike” on the Albrandswaard side (west). Every house is unique and different from their neighbors. From the 1960s, construction has also been carried out on the east side. These are planned developments with urban clusters and row housing production.
The two sides of the dike have acquired a different character from history. The new plan for the Vogelbuurt fits in with that tradition: a planned development with a village character.
Four two-story blocks enclose a garden. Two are gallery blocks, oriented towards the surrounding streets. The other two are corridor blocks, with apartments on two sides: facing the street and the garden. The blocks stand loosely side by side, with passageways in between. On the upper floor, they are connected by walkways.
All the apartments feature a full width loggia or terrace as a private outdoor space.
Our proposal to limit the height to two stories and divide the program into four separate blocks around a garden was at odds with the original urban plan, which envisioned a large, closed building block with the visual quality of interconnected village-style houses. However, it was precisely the simplicity of the repetition, the legibility of the facades, and the intermediate scale of the blocks around the garden, that convinced the housing corporation and the municipality to embrace our proposal.
