Amerongenstraat, 49 Town houses

The Hague, The Netherlands
1998 - 2001

The location of the project is the Leyenburg area in Den Haag originally designed by the architect H.P. Berlage on the north side of the Zuiderpark. It is a precise triangular urban design and part of the 1930 expansion plan, Rustenburg IV. The housing blocks are clearly delineated and impart a strong urban character. The neighborhood architecture is typical of the Hague with brick facades, stairs, articulated wooden window frames and flat roofs. The site, defined by the Amerongenstraat and the Woudenbergstraat is on the south side where 49 new single-family town homes are constructed with 40 new parking spaces. In addition, the city has proposed a trapezium shaped public park on the north side of the new residences.

The volumetric proportion of the townhouses and their interaction with light and shadow is an important means to distinguish every home as an individual element in the street. In other words, the rhythm of solid cubistic volumes of which certain parts have been cut out and replaced by clear glass windows are plastically differentiated from each other through the shadow play on surrounding walls. The houses are designed to have the largest living area at the ground floor and the plan configuration is developed either in width or in depth of each lot.
 

Specifically, on both ends of the Amerongenstraat and along the Woudenbergstraat, the contiguous residences have been developed in width and create the image of distinct houses by separating at the skyline. The openings created also visual connect the inner housing block area to the street and partly reveals the life of the inner block to the public street outside. This design approach also provides an opportunity to create windows in the stairwell so daylight will penetrate into the middle of the houses. By contrast, the remaining houses that are situated between are developed in depth. While these do not have the same advantages, instead in the back garden each home has a veranda with a glass roof.

The front door of each town home is positioned in a set back over the full height of the front facade. This creates individual entrances, which are then very visible, and also forms a corner window at the entry. This feature greatly enhances security because it is possible to look further along the street from the front room. The town homes are constructed from carefully selected dark red brick. This choice is a natural compliment to the dark brown bricks used in the surrounding area. Also, the wooden window frames are painted white like most of the windows in the neighborhood. By choosing strong basic colors for the houses, the contrasting colors of the trees and of the front gardens are emphasized. The back gardens have fences selected by owners and customized storage sheds. All of the homes have been sold before project completion.