The site occupies a distinctive location on the corner of Kruisweg and Boslaan, close to the center of Hoofddorp. Behind the houses along Kruisweg currently lies a hidden world of warehouses and industrial buildings. This existing business area will be transformed into a residential neighborhood. At this point, the larger scale of developments such as Gemaalhuis and Hyde Park transitions into the smaller grain of detached houses along the historic axis of the Kruisweg, leading toward the town center.
The new residential area will be characterized by:
a green living environment;
being well-connected rather than isolated, integrated with the surrounding neighborhoods;
as many car-free living streets as possible;
parking accommodated within green courtyards;
slow-traffic routes (for pedestrians and cyclists) that connect with adjacent neighborhoods and create new visual corridors;
an architectural landmark along the Kagertocht, responding to the larger scale of Hyde Park, which lies diagonally opposite the site.
| Architects | Thomas Gillet |
Middelsee is the expansion plan on the southwest side of Leeuwarden, based on an urban design by West 8. The Frisian water city serves as a source of inspiration. Commissioned by the smallest housing association in the Netherlands, we have designed a plan for homes arranged around two green courtyards. It forms a small-scale community with plenty of space for encounters, and a robust waterfront with the apartment building as its eye-catcher.
Using simple means, variety is created so that no more than two houses are ever the same. The foundation remains consistent: a compact floor plan, lightly jointed red brickwork, and solid white window frames. We introduce variation through a dormer or a brick roof extension, a roof edge detail, or a distinctive entrance feature. The client’s existing housing stock in Leeuwarden’s city center also served as inspiration — a characteristic working-class neighborhood with abundant greenery.
In our plan, residents meet each other around private stoops and gardens bordered by low hedges, as well as along the wide galleries on the timber façade of the apartment building. Shared bicycle storage areas and shared cars also contribute to the sense of community.
In Wassenaar, 40 duplex houses owned by the housing association St. Willibrordus have been replaced by 86 social rental dwellings, primarily intended for starters and seniors.
The site of the new social housing lies within a village extension from the 1960s. At the time, this was the northernmost district of Wassenaar — spaciously laid out, with views over meadows and farmhouses. In designing the plan for the replacement housing, we built upon the core qualities of the existing neighborhood: generous street profiles, front gardens, and abundant greenery.
The new social housing is distributed across six buildings arranged around a shared courtyard garden. By removing the Stompwijckstraat that previously ran between the plots, space has been created to accommodate residents’ parking within the block, while also allowing room for the communal garden. Along this garden, a community facility has been incorporated.
The buildings feature a formal frontage with so-called ‘zoom dwellings’ on the ground floor — shallow homes with their entrance and a small front garden facing the street. The rear sides adjoin the parking area, which is located beneath an open, green deck. The existing tree structure of the area has been preserved. To ensure privacy for the front gardens, a green strip separates them from the sidewalk. The upper-level homes are accessed via wide external galleries.
The urban design was created by Studio VVKH. To ensure the buildings align in scale with the surrounding structures along the long streets, the façade of the top (third) floor is set back slightly from the building line. The balconies create a connection with the street and are subtly angled to optimize orientation toward the sun. On the northern park side, the buildings are more robust in character, with their height responding to the adjacent apartment block.
VVKH, commissioned by Hoorne Vastgoed, developed the development vision for housing on top of the existing shopping center in the center of Castricum. The inward-looking shopping center, dating from the 1970s, is a single-story development with parking at ground level surrounding it. The shops are supplied from the outside, resulting in many unattractive rear entrances. There is little connection with the residential areas that have grown up around the shopping center. By adding housing to the plan, the development will reconnect with the surrounding area. Some of the housing will be positioned above the shops, and some will have front doors facing the street. These new frontages will enhance public safety, while the logistics will disappear from view. The shopping center will be clearly visible with a new entrance to Soomerwegh, the access road to the village. A new square will be added here, creating a pleasant atmosphere. By designing the entrance areas of the shopping center as new squares, the connection with the surrounding area will be strengthened. Geesterduin's stony surroundings will become greener. The plan will be nature-inclusive, providing space for flora and fauna through the addition of roof gardens, vertical greenery, and green landscaping in the squares. The entire plan will be made sustainable, with the preservation of the existing shopping center as a starting point.
In the summer of 2024, the municipality of Leiden launched an ideas competition for the Second Green Ring. Following the success of the Singelpark around the historic city center, the idea emerged to connect the parks and waterways along the city’s edge into one continuous whole — a green-blue ring where residents of the densely built city can recreate, exercise, experience nature, and meet one another.
Studio VVKH, together with partners in the fields of landscape architecture, water management, ecology, and industrial design, submitted a vision titled ‘Het Leidse Lint’ (“The Leiden Ribbon”). With this vision, we were among the three finalists invited to present their plans to a broad jury in March of this year. The citizens of Leiden were also able to view the proposals and share their opinions.
Our submission achieved second place. The winning proposal was ‘Panoramapark’ by Polyfern. We are proud of this result and greatly enjoyed developing our ideas for the city. The importance of outdoor space — for people, plants, and animals alike — will increasingly come to the forefront of design at all scales in the years ahead.
You can download the presentation boards of ‘Het Leidse Lint’ here.
The design team consisted of:
VVKH, Jan Maurits van Linge (landscape office Xi-ontwerp), Simon Akaya (npk design), Yasmin Stip (Stip werkt), Harma van der Meer (TU Delft), and *Ada Jaśkowiec.
