Bloembolllenhof Vijfhuizen | Studio Woodroffe Papa

Following a successful entry into a competition in January 1998, we were commissioned by the municipality of Haarlemmemeer in February 1999 to design 56 houses adjacent to the village of Vijfhuizen. The project forms the first phase of a large Vinex urban plan for 700 new dwellings that was constructed on the edge of the existing village over the next 5 years.

Across the Netherlands, the recent wave of Vinex suburban housing projects are being criticised for their mono-functional uniformity and their almost ‘too obvious’ representation of the power of the market. In reaction to this, the original competition for Vijfhuizen requested proposals to address the challenge of designing a ‘”Vinex location that does not want to be a Vinex location.”

The density of the housing, the smallness of the plots, and the intense mixture of different cost categories meant that traditional row housing as a starting point proved insufficient to meet this challenge. Therefore, the premise of the design offers an alternative way of living on Vinex sites where the housing plots are arranged to create a ‘field-like’ condition. This creates a “regular irregularity” organization where the collection of houses is considered to be as important as the typology of the houses. The spaces between the houses become varied, resolving the desire/conflict for privacy and openness through the explorative use of diagonal views.

Parking is also part of this strategy where the cars occupy strategic openings in the plan as opposed to being grouped in one location or in a row n front of the house. The houses themselves are conceived as a series of elemental and generic ‘farm-like’ typologies, in which the differentiation of housing types is developed through size. Internally, they are organised vertically to compensate for the density of the site. Designed as volumes they explore multiple relationships between interior and exterior spaces through a thought out system of opening for the windows. The elevations are conceived as a wrapping and intertwining of vertically grooved hard wood (Cumaru) siding and ribbed steel plating in equal proportion. Over time, the materials will blend with each other to create a “new oneness.”