ONE SIZE FITS ALL

Aim “Woonstad Rotterdam aims to increase the attractiveness of the Prinses Margrietflat for senior residents by creating a differentiated housing environment where elderly with different backgrounds, life styles and income can feel at home.” This proposal therefore creates and facilitates various uses of the apartment’s outdoor spaces allowing residents to annex them. The closed family in an open society. During the last decades a lot of discussion and writing has come along about the effects of the built environment on human behaviour and social relations. People want to have a good understanding with their neighbours, but certainly also enough privacy. The front door, as has been written in the 1960´s, provides not only rest and desolation, but also enables real meeting with others. The apartment is a place in which one can be intimate, open and vulnerable. A basis for these reel meetings nevertheless can be found in the small talk nearby, the access gallery in this case. A superficial but pleasant understanding with the direct neighbours contributes highly to a better appreciation of the apartment and the living environment. Finding the right balance between encountering and real meeting which can make an environment pleasant to live in. Differentiation in lifestyles and spaces In the briefing, preservation of the current open access gallery is combined with realisation of large balconies. But the wished diversity of residents creates a need for different types of outdoor spaces. Vital elderly couples for example love to use a large balcony that fits a table and chairs, while for the disabled might feel the need to be able to sit close to the window to look outside and enjoy the sun even when it’s cold outside. For them, a balcony is an undesirable barrier. Other residents prefer to have their outdoor space at the front side of their apartment for easily staying in touch with their neighbours. At this moment, the circulation area in the residential building offers less opportunity for meeting. The access galleries are reduced by their dimensions to traffic space. Balconies provide some privacy but not enough space. The relation of the apartments with nature and the magnificent amount of daylight are qualities that need to be preserved. In order to enable both intimacy of the apartment, contact with the other residents and an open relation with nature, this design uses and strengthens the existing stepping back of the façade to create diverse spaces: - a large balcony for intimate meeting with family and friends - a light closed veranda for the relation with the wide environment - a space located at the access gallery for social contacts with neighbours Differentiation therefore is not to be found in creating a random diversity between the different apartments, but in facilitating different ways of use in one and the same architectural addition. One size fits all!