One home suits all

Abstract

More families prefer living in the city, as the city has to offer social networks and facilities close by. Whereas before families left to the suburban areas, they now become city families. This development is attractive for the city, as city families offer liveliness and have a good influence on the economics. However, the city has no suitable housing to offer, because of the newness of this development. There is a task for architects to design suitable city family housing. Firstly, suitable means compact, which makes the dwelling affordable for a large group of city families. Secondly, suitable means flexible in use and adjustable, which makes the dwelling appropriate for different families with different needs and backgrounds during the day and over time.

This results in a standard city family apartment that can be applied to different cities. The context of the location determines the limits in which this dwelling can be repeated and built up into a building. The testcase in this project was the Groenmarkt in Amsterdam, a perfect location for city families. It is situated on the edge of the city center on a sheltered spot. On this location a building has been designed that totally consists of the standard city family apartment. Because this standard dwelling has so much to offer by its flexibility no other types are necessary. When the dwelling demand changes in the future and families are moving out of the city again, the building can be turned into a building with compact studio's. The family apartments can be split up in two because of the two shafts, the structure and the bay width.

The dwelling layout and its window openings can be repeated in other projects. The repetition of units, the system of the building and its materialisation are dependent on the specific location.