Housing Silo on the IJ
20 juli 2002
In the Housing Silo Amsterdam, 157 apartments (buy and rental) - some business units as well as public space - compress within a tight 10 storey high and 20 meters deep urban envelope. The building is in line with adjacent existing silo’s along the jetty that have also been converted into housing, and refers to container piles that you can find in harbours. To compensate for the loss of the windy spot at the end of the jetty, the pier has been pulled through the building, ending in the water again with a public accessible balcony. Under the balcony, a business unit offers an equally magnificent view over the river. The demand for a big variety of housing types has led to the design of as many spatial qualities and different housing types as possible. As a counterbalance to the increasing individuality, the housing types have been put together in mini-neighbourhoods. These groups of 4 to 8 houses are of the same type and can be recognised by their treatment of elevations and specific colours used in corridors and galleries. The houses not only differ in size and position within the building but also through the placing of interior walls, widths (5-15 meters), depths (9-20 meters), levels (1-2-3 storeys even diagonally), construction elements (walls columns, beams), exterior spaces (serre, balcony, patios, rooftops), heights (2,7-3,6 m bruto), access (corridor, gallery, bridge, stairs), number of rooms (1 to 5), voids and different types of windows. The design enabled the removal of several walls and furthermore the contractor has fulfilled numerous individual wishes of future inhabitants. Positioned at the head of the building on the west side, is a large collective balcony for all inhabitants. Residents can also take a walk through the building that takes them pass all the facades and roofs and along the marina and hall. In the marina under the building, boats can be docked and moored. The building represents within the tight urban, structural and building regulation boundaries, the limits put onto it by the desires and imagination of government, clients, city, inhabitants and designers. In the process of designing and building the Housing Silo, it was also possible to implement a large number of wishes from all participants. The building thus indexes the interaction between restriction and innovation.
Client
Rabo Vastgoed, De Principaal B.V.
Construction
Bouwcombinatie Graansilo’s V.O.F. (Bouwbedrijf M.J. de Nijs en Zonen B.V. en Kondor Wessels Noord)
Architect
MVRDV (Winy Maas Jacob van Rijs en Nathalie de Vries met Frans de Witte, Eline Strijkers, Duzan Doepel, Bernd Felsinger. Prijsvraagontwerp met Tom Mossel, Joost Glissenaar, Alex Brouwer, Ruby van den Munckhof, and Joost Kok.)
Facilitary Office
Bureau Bouwkunde B.V. Rotterdam
Construction
Pieters Bouwtechniek, Haarlem, Delft
Structure
Cauberg Huygen, Rotterdam