7.5.2014
Zeewegterrein, in IJmuiden
The design for 91 dwellings on the site of the former Kennemer Hospital is located in close proximity to the center of IJmuiden. The existing park nearby has been refurbished and extended. Besides a new residential care complex the urban plan consists mostly of single-family homes. The allotment proposal by M3H is connected to the new residential care complex as well as to the existing surrounding neighborhoods.
The houses are oriented towards new pedestrian streets. These intimate public spaces have a green character and act as a safe playground for children. The parking spaces are situated on the infields of the closed blocks, in carports adjacent to the private backyards, and in garages under the lifted backyards. There are different types of houses, and each type can optionally be expanded with a set of extensions: expansions to the front and the back, dormers, bay windows and balconies. These extensions are ‘pre-designed’ and can also be added later by residents in an accelerated building permit procedure.
The houses are designed as brick building blocks with a certain monumentality. The height jumps and open edges of the blocks accentuate the building blocks sculptural appearance. Within the context of the building blocks, each individual house is readable by a filling with windows and wooden slats. The masonry is made without vertical joints with sunken bed joints, which creates a horizontal lineation. The wooden slats are also applied horizontally, making them subtly enter into a relationship with the brickwork. Both masonry and wood fillings are done in a palette of matching colors so that individual variation occurs within the context of the whole.
The accented margin strip invites residents to take parts of the sidewalk and public space into possession and make little informal front gardens.
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