ARCHELLO YOUR CONNECTION WITH ARCHITECTURE

The characteristic bended streets of Blankenborch (Municipality of Vianen, The Netherlands) are being terminated by four specific strips of buildings that merge into the adjacent park. With the maintenance of both profile and building height a relation with the existing buildings as well as the park has been achieved. By making the strips more airy in the direction of the park by means of overhangs and tranparancies in the facades, the buildings slowly dissolve into the park which make the buildings a part of the park and vice versa.
The plan consists of 28 dwellings with a variety of housing types of apartments and single-family houses. The various dwellings, organized in four strips as an extension piece of the existing fabric that terminate in the adjacent park look out over the canal.
The housing plans are designed in such a manner that the living area can be organized both at the front and rear side or in other words on the side of the park or the canal . The houses have large window openings with a focus on park and canal. The houses at the end of the strips are particularized through the application of extra glass. This provides a direct relation with the park and at the same time takes care of social control within the public space. The story high folding-sliding doors take care of a significant openness causing the house to interact with its environment.
Through the difference in masonry and varying facade openings subtle differences per strip derive. The distinct folding-sliding doors and the robust detailling of the specific tilted bricks and lattice work lead to great plasticity in the facade. In combination with a subtle detailling in which the window frames are flush with the brickwork. The mitered bricks go around the corner resulting in a composition of robust brickwork blocks with a minimalistic architecture.
For the organization of private gardens and parking areas that border the park a green solution with Hedera and grass zones has been planned causing the park to merge into the buildings through the private gardens. All this leads to an optimal integration of public and private.