IDencity

Abstract

"NEW HERITAGE” The studio New Heritage focuses on the
existing housing stock within Amsterdam Zuidoost: „Many neighbourhoods face
social problems of liveability and demographic changes. Moreover, this housing,
like all of our stock, should meet the future standards of energy performance,
which leads to an urgent need for energy upgrading. The question arises if
keeping this housing is feasible, when taking into account the complexity of
technical, social, economic and aesthetic issues.“ (New Heritage, 2020) During
this studio the aim has been to develop an answer on the housing stock of
H-Buurt, an area within Bijlmermeer, and if it is suitable for further use or
not? To make decisions on this, value-based design shall help to extract
existing values as well as challenges to get a good understanding of the needs
of H-Buurt.   THE PROJECT IDencity is
located in Hakfort as part of H-Buurt in Amsterdam Zuidoost. The project
addresses the non-used car park Hakfort. The car park has been built as part of
the expansion plan of Amsterdam in the mid 70’s and was originally connected to
the high-rise dwelling Hakfort. The once facilitating function to society is
nowadays not given anymore, since the car park finds itself empty and faces
demolition in 2022 in order to make space for a new development driven by the
municipality of Amsterdam. As original part of Bijlmer’s master plan, the car
park incorporates the characteristics of the functional city approach, which
puts the car into the centre of the city and gives Bijlmer part of its
identity.  Therefore, IDencity aims to
draw an alternative solution to the demolition by analysing its value from an
environmental, social and economic perspective. Programmatically, the project
proposes an adaptive, low-carbon transformation of the existing structure into
a social hub, while offering an answer to the national housing shortage by
adding 120 dwellings.  In summary,
IDencity aims to push circularity on both a building and a society level by
creating places and spaces where the existing is complemented by additions to
serve both environment and society.  RESEARCH
QUESTION How can the adaptive reuse of car park Hakfort offer solutions to
current challenges while strengthen the genius loci? Sub question 1: How can
the transformation provide an answer to the national goal of carbon neutrality
by 2050? Sub question 2: What possibilities of serving the one million homes
challenge can be achieved while keeping the existing car park’s structure?  Sub question 3: How can the adaptive reuse
enhance the buildings’ value to society? 
CONCLUSION Environmental challenges as well as societal needs have been
extracted as key elements of the proposed project. To deal with an existing
structure, which is currently not used and to re-dedicate it to society can
show value in keeping existing buildings rather than demolishing them.
Additionally, environmental goals, like carbon neutrality and circularity can
give impulses to confront oneself with the building in depth. In the framework
of “New Heritage”, this results in a value based design that extracts values,
enhances them and can result in valuable proposals that helps to transition
towards a more sustainable built environment. In the case of car park Hakfort,
high environmental value of its structure, historical value as part of original
Bijlmer, as a functional city, can be used to develop a highly connective
building, which interacts with society and surroundings.  With its holistic approach, the project
tackles relevant themes while offering flexibility to its solution.