The Houses of Borneo

The houses of Borneo are located to the east of Amsterdam’s city center. The site, a former Docklands area, was redeveloped into a residential area accomodating 2500 housing units including three large apartment buildings and small housing blocks. The street below is an attempt to bring the concept of the canal house to the 21st century. Within the confinements of Dutch building regulations and the urban plan by West 8/Adriaan Geuze an international team of architects designed the houses, each of which is unique (MVRDV got 2). Following its completion in 2000 both the scheme and the houses received a lot of international acclaim.

Brian

"The Washing Machine" Housing Project, Genoa, Italy

Over the past fifty years in Genoa, Italy, multiple experimental modernist housing projects have developed in response to the growing number of subsidized households. Unfortunately, the majority of these developments have proven unsuccessful in creating a quality dwelling for the elderly and low income residents. One of these failing projects is “la Lavatrice” or "The Washing Machine”. Many aspects of this apartment complex add to the ineffectiveness of this modern housing solution. First, the entire community is situated at a distance so far from the city center that the complex becomes an isolated entity. With little connection to other citizens and economic classes, the apartments become less desirable to inhabit. Second, the placement of the two main structures creates a narrow alleyway. Because of this limited space, an opportunity to appreciate the facades of the building is nonexistent. Lastly, the view of the city from each apartment unit is obstructed by the addition of large partitions on the balconies. Even though these partitions contain a circular void, which is the element that aids in the labeling of the apartments as a “washing machine”, the bulkiness of the barrier blocks the view of the city. Additionally, a large amount of wasted space develops on the balcony façade due to the lack of extruded floor slabs for additional outdoor living space. Despite all the shortcomings of this modernist housing solution, everyone can learn from the mistakes in the project and begin to understand the disaster in segregating all economic classes to a specific region.

-Patrick Lee

Developing Neighborhood

All of the houses in this developing neighborhood were different. It was one of the few new developments in the area where all the houses weren't just developer-planned cookie-cutter houses; even good modern architecture can be repetitive. Residents could do what they wished within a certain plot of land, and the range was extremely broad, from the brick house in the bottom photo to a bright-yellow-tiled one, and any colors and materials in between. Being on the first day, we were riding bikes through the whole thing. Coupled with Amsterdam's sandy soil and the fact that it was a beautiful, windy day, it felt like we were riding bikes through any beach in South Carolina.

meg chandler

WoZoCo Apartments for Elderly People

This building is known as WoZoCo's Apartments for Elderly People. It was designed as a housing option for the elderly by MVRDV and completed in 1997. WoZoCo refers to a Dutch term that describes the building's capacity for medical care as there are doctors and nurses there to care for the residents if necessary. It is located in Amsterdam Osdorp, a planned garden city suburb developed in the 1950's. This is an area mostly inhabited by elderly people and new development eating up the green space. This building was designed to suit the needs of the elderly residents while breaking up the monotony of the area. The building contains 100 apartments, 87 in the footprint and 13 cantilevered off the north facade. The building has its unique shape due to the architects' solution to zoning regulations. The footprint was only zoned for 87 units and the regulations specified that no apartments be north facing. To solve this with a request for 100 units, the architects decided use a reinforced concrete and steel structure and cantilever the remaining 13 units off the north facade and use the rest of the north side for corridor space. The mass of the structure was also broken up with small balconies protruding from the apartments made of steel and colored glass. This solution created a building that is varied and full of movement and color in contrast to the surrounding area.
Elizabeth Conte

Laura Weber's Wild Living installation

These houses were Laura Weeber's submission to the Wild Living installation, a housing development in Almere, Netherlands. Almere itself is a relatively new development, reclaimed in the 1970s. Each submitter was charged with creating a house that can be added to or subtracted from, based on the occupant's size and price needs, breaking from the traditional Dutch mold of government-decided housing. The concept behind this one was that you could add the segments shown in the third photo to the front and back of the house to create the spaces needed. There are several different color options, as shown in the second photograph, to make each house distinctive. In the first image, I tried to use Bernt and Hilla Becher's style of documentation; straight-on photographs of the subject matter, montaged into a single black-and-white image. This allows the viewer to compare small differences in structures that would otherwise appear all the same.
Architect: Laura Weeber
Location: Almere, Netherlands
meg chandler