living, meeting and caring

This project combines apartments for elderly people in an urban surrounding. In addition, a care centre as faciliatory and social space for the neighbourhood.

The whole urban development of Zaanstad shows a strong variety of scales and measures.
This project becomes dominant thanks to the contrast of small-scale housing of Zaanstad and the big industrial blocks along the Zaan river. Soon, other big-scale housing will be realised making this contrast a continuous urban theme. This applies to the location of Inverdan meant for elderly as well.

The location has a strong spatial connection with the nearby existing living area: Murano.
The blocks are connected by an elevated public deck. The development of this collective garden and of the whole semi-enclosed area between the blocks offers and stimulates social activities and informal meetings among neighbours. Moreover, the facilities of the caring centre incite elderly to live here.

The composition of the plan consists out of a number of big-scale masonry blocks and an elevated plinth in the middle which forms a unity with the original plan area of the Zaanse Heroes.
The plinth provides the entrance to the housing blocks and to the care centre as well as to the parking lot. The blocks are light in colour and carry the distinctive size of the former industrial blocks.

During the project development, a great deal of attention was paid to the composition of the entire plan. The colours of the brickwork strengthen the urban development articulation. The dimensions of the windows are adjusted in relation to the levels. They increase with the heights of the blocks and orientate towards the meadow environment. Individual outdoor spaces have been placed on the deck in order to stimulate meetings between the inhabitants.

The emergence of the multi-cultural society, ageing, the increase in single households and the related anonymity, require that the city of the future needs to offer space for creating communities. Living together, caring together is in that sense a concept that can be used as a blueprint for many different places.