Housing ZuiderDuinen
Housing ZuiderDuinen
Housing ZuiderDuinen
Living in the dunes inspired by the dunes
An artificial dune as the foundation for the apartment complex
In order to maximize the openness in the area, we have chosen to cluster the houses in three apartment buildings, instead of in one larger building block. The parking spaces of the houses have been kept out of the picture by incorporating them into an artificial dune; the facilities, the storerooms and the main entrances to the residential blocks are also located in this dune.
The rubble dunes of the bombing of Bezuidenhout
What is special is that we were able to make use of the rolling landscape that already exists, which partly consists of “rubble dunes” - artificial dunes that were created after the Second World War with the rubble of the bombing of Bezuidenhout. This did pose a challenge during construction, because some of the debris had to be removed first; at the same time, we were also able to make use of the slopes to let the artificial dune around the apartments flow beautifully into the natural landscape.
A continuous landscape between the houses
On the street side, the artificial dune has an urban character, with shop windows and entrances. Towards the dunes, a green slope provides a connection to the surrounding landscape. Opposite the International School, this is also where the outdoor area of the daycare center and after-school care is located. On top of the dune, a green deck has been designed between the apartment blocks; this way, the natural character of the environment has been extended to between the houses. To strengthen the embedding in the environment, typical dune crops were planted on the deck gardens and the complex is made of sand-colored brick.
Living in connection with nature
An important starting point is that all apartments also connect as much as possible with nature, with the view and with the sun. Floor-to-ceiling façade openings, together with spacious outdoor spaces, ensure a maximum relationship between inside and outside; each outdoor area faces east, south or west — never to the north. Within the complex, we have designed three different types of outdoor spaces: green gardens on the deck, balconies on the floors and spacious roof terraces through “setbacks” on the upper level. The balconies in particular are real eye-catchers: they are made of 8 cm thin concrete, have a large surface and are almost always angled, so that residents have maximum sunlight and views.
A compact residential building as an answer to a complex task
With ZuiderDuinen, atelier PRO has designed a sculptural volume that can qualitatively fit a very extensive program into a special location - a compact all-sided apartment complex that matches the qualities of the environment. This has made it a place where people in the city, a stone's throw from the beach, live on the dunes.
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