Cortinghborg

On a former sports field within the ring road of the Dutch town of Groningen, a new residential district is being realised by creating a 'scenery landscape'. This plan achieves the coherence and transition between the 'garden vilage' De Oude Hoogte and the industrial area on the northern side of the ring road. The division into sequential living atmospheres provides a varied range of housing typologies.

The northern boundary of the plan is formed by a long apartment building -designed by diederendirrix architects- that functions as a noise barrier towards the area behind it. Here, in the southern part of the plan, a connection to the existing garden village has been realized by the continuation of the road structure and the layout of the scheme in closed perimeter blocks. These blocks contain both the scale and characteristic design of the sloping roofs of the neighbouring buildings.

The housing blocks are designed in different configurations which create a variety of perspective spaces between them. The layout of the housing blocks consist of a combination of standard row houses on the long sides and specials on the short sides. Within these special dwellingtypes the entrances towards the streets and the inner courtyards are elaborated as white voids, based on the design of the nearby historic gateway named Cortinghpoort.

The inner areas contain a typical Dutch layout of private gardens with storages that are situated on a collective exit. The extra-large meandering design however provides an abundance of space resulting in a comfortable inner area.

The materialisation of the building blocks consist of a shell made of glued bricks, repetitive window frames and sloping roofs with steel tiles. By using just one colour for al these materials in each block, an almost artificial image is created. Because of their white colour, the corners and inner areas automatically become the special elements.