Centraal Wonen
Twenty houses of different sizes lie in a strip on a high embankment. They have white window frames and bright blue doors and a wooden ge...
Twenty houses of different sizes are situated in a strip on a high embankment. They have white window frames and bright blue doors and wooden cladding. You reach the lower dwellings by a flight of steps and enter the house through a courtyard. The first-floor units have an external steel staircase with a narrow canopy. In front of the row of houses is a street and along it a picking garden and a series of buildings for collective use. There is a living room with a fireplace, a kitchen and guest rooms. There are chore rooms, a place for washing machines, and a communal terrace. Some residents have studios there. On the architect's initiative, the complex was placed with housing corporation Ymere. He wanted to realise it in social rent, so that the less fortunate could also join in. It turned out to be a golden formula. The complex, based on the ideals for centraal wonen from the 1970s, has been thriving for forty years. The houses are close to a green meent with old poplars and border the full length of a bird-rich forest at the back, which is visited and maintained by all neighbourhood residents. This also promotes neighbourhood-wide social cohesion.
