Beyond monotony

Abstract

The research dives into Amsterdam Nieuw-West, exploring the principles of Western Garden Cities and the use of adaptability in the construction process. The Western Garden Cities are an elaboration of Cornelis van Eesteren's Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan (General Expansion Plan) from 1935. This city district is part of the Western Garden Cities and has recently been listed by the National Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands to have national importance. This area is listed because of the meaningful urban plan and the execution of it after World War II. However, in the 1980s, the Western Garden Cities even became synonymous with squalor, crime and social problems. The current housing stock is considered obsolete, both architecturally and physically. The area faces many problems and threats, making it an ideal location for transformation and renewal. Recognizing the pressing housing crisis and the urgent need to transform existing buildings in a circular way, the research looks into innovative approaches of building with adaptability, to efficiently revitalize this city district. The research proposes design guidelines for the transformation of porch flats, the most common building typology, in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. It is the repetition and the recognisability of these residential buildings that allows for improvements. The guidelines are a list of intervention strategies that can be implemented in the transformation of the post-war porch flats in Nieuw-West, they respect the heritage status of the neighbourhood and are complemented by a set of adaptability strategies. These guidelines are a helpful tool for transforming porch flats in the area with a diverse range of small interventions. However, the guidelines don't form definitive answers, but are rather a flexible framework which is useful as a starting point in the design process.
The design case is located at the Johan Jongkindstraat, close to Lelylaan station.The plot has 6 porch flats with a residential function and 5 smaller buildings with both a residential and public function. The design project forms the location in order to implement the design guidelines provided by the research and forms an example of how to transform in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. The design carefully looked at the design guidelines and implemented them. It also looked at site-specific interventions that were needed to increase living comfort. With the right design interventions, connections were made, repetition was broken, heritage was preserved with new improvements related to current wishes and the entire plan was future-proofed. This project goes beyond monotony and shows that with these interventions, the satisfactory scores in the Western Garden Cities can improve.