Katerstraat

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Katerstraat

Architecture

Housing

Architecture

Housing

Katerstraat, Hague

A revolution in urban regeneration

The Katerstraat operation involved a direct politically driven intervention not to sacrifice a completely ruined neighborhood as long had been intended for a large-scale traffic breakthrough, but rather to return its old residential function. The Katerstraat and the Oog in't Zeilstraat are among the four cross streets between the curved Paviljoensgracht and the straight Boekhorststraat, which were built in the early seventeenth century when the canal belt around The Hague was closed.

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Awards

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Client

Staedion (voorheen Algemene Woningbouwvereniging, Den Haag)

Location

Katerstraat en Oog in 't Zeilstraat, Den Haag

Size

11.317 m²

Period

1983

—

present

1987

Completion

1987

Project status

Opgeleverd

While the Oog in't Zeilstraat could be healed in its entirety, the old Katerstraat was completely replaced with geometric precision by two traffic-free streets that meet halfway perpendicular to an intimate square. In the viewing direction of the square, both in width and height, there is a dilation of perspective, which means that this bright meeting point is experienced as much wider than it actually is.

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The buildings on the sharp and obtuse street corners are special in both function and design. Hemispherical windows in the gable tops represent the rounded roofs behind them. Square elements with glass blocks in the street surface raised slightly above ground level provide daylight to the underground corridor between car parks and storerooms. This project has shown that customized 'Stadtreparatur' is also possible in The Hague and does not necessarily have to be done in a historicizing retro style.