Zuidwijk De Burgen

The restructuring of a neighbourhood in Zuidwijk situated at the South-end of Rotterdam and is part of the extension belt that was built in the Fifties and Sixties. The urban concept is based on a plan of Willem van Tijen. Nearly all the medium-rise blocks are demolished to make way for single family low-rise. In the course of this operation one thousand dwellings of roughly sixty squares are replaced by six hundred dwellings double the size. In combination with a realistic parking ratio of two cars per dwelling, this results in a considerable increase in building density and in a 50% reduction of inhabitants’ number. The emphasis of the design is on retaining and reinforcing the structure of natural green and so characteristic spaces of this district by re-using the old building footprints via a different typology: single family dwellings with collective gardens.