Europan 11

An housing complex on the Van Harinxmakanaal waterfront: the tradition of waterside houses in Friesland mixes with the satisfaction of the needs of the contemporary way of life. The water pervades the Kanaalzone assuming different functions in the inhabitants life: water not as barrier but as an integrated component of the public space where to socialize, to spend own leisure time, to practice sports or to relax, an element of connection between the different part of the intervention area and with Leeuwarden. Flat sweeps of land. Water expanse of the canals that interweaving create Leeuwarden. A tree by the edge, rooted to the bank and leant out on the water. A leaf falls down, then it floats on the canal. Physical and symbolic link between ground and water, nature and artifice. As the leaf, the greenery becomes the joining element in the project. As the fine nervatures of the floating leaf branch off the main one, as the vegetation creeps in the ground up to touch the water. The leaf scheme permeates the whole project: from the urban scale, to the single block of houses, to every housing unit. At the urban scale the nervatures turn into the skeleton of the connective system between the blocks. The fall into disuse of the old N31, the Hendrik-Algrawei, crossing through the intervention area, allows to move the main axis of connection for outgoing traffic to the south edge of the area. The new road layout has been placed between the high-voltage line pylons and connected to the east with the Goutum crossing on Overijsselselaan, to the west with the existing tunnel under railway.