park living

75 Dwellings  |  Rotterdam  |  the Netherlands

Some problems in post-war neighbourhoods result from, among other things, the storerooms of the dwellings being located on the ground level, behind closed façades. The given building envelope of this residential building, which is included in Hoogvliet’s urban restructuring plans, includes a similar structure: a ground floor that consists of a parking garage and storerooms, with dwellings above. This layout has an adverse effect on the public space around the block: social control is lacking because there are no residents to keep an eye on the street from their ground floor dwellings.

Therefore, the building section differs substantially from the one given in the building envelope. The parking garage of the residential building is ‘wrapped in dwellings’, as it were. Dwellings on the church side are accessed directly from a footpath. The so-called park dwellings are located on the other side, their entrances and exterior spaces overlooking the park. The upstairs flats are gallery flats. The galleries are located on either side of the building, in various positions. Because of this variation, the building does not appear to have a rear façade and each floor is different, with its own identity.