Atelierwoningen

In April 1990, the National Housing Council's BouwRAI was held in Amsterdam for the fifth time. An entirely new element of this trade fair for building and living was an outdoor 'full-scale' exhibition in Almere. The council saw it as an opportunity to attract potential residents to Almere and build a young and innovative image. The first edition ended up in Muziekwijk-Oost. Based on the theme of 'groundbreaking building', projects were started by corporations, developers and pension funds. Clients and architects could experiment to their heart's content. Important steps were taken in finding new living-working combinations, for old and young, family and individual.

Sixteen houses, linked in groups of four, each based on a floor plan of eight by eight metres, with one corner cut off to serve as an outdoor space. The living room, located at the cut-off corner, has a glass frontage and a view of the courtyard garden. Each flat has a room on the roof that can be accessed via a spiral staircase on the outside. This allows you to establish a separately accessible workspace there. A terraced house, it can be divided into two, making it suitable for simultaneous occupation by elderly people and young families. The ground floor and first floor have separate entrances in the clunky entrance hall, rounded at the back and set in front of the flat façade. The aluminium profiled sheet finish of the façade and the entrance area give the dwellings a business-like, industrial character.