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Architects: Arons & Gelauff architecten
- Area: 17750 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Sebastian van Damme
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Lead Architects: Arnoud Gelauff, Jan Bart Bouwhuis
Text description provided by the architects. Arons & Gelauff architects designed a Tiny Forest full of starter homes for campus De Kwekerij in Utrecht, Netherlands: colorful, sustainable, and affordable due to a smart layout.
Developer Jebber, a subsidiary of “Stichting Studentenhuisvesting”, develops living space for young starters. This also includes De Kwekerij, a former KPN plot in Utrecht near the Diakonessen Hospital and the HKU. After one solid residential block had already been placed, Arons and Gelauff architects were asked to arrange the rest of the campus, including apartments.
The original plan was to place several of these massive blocks. The site also contained the remains of an underground atomic bunker, which was intended to be removed. We conceived the plan of a Tiny Forest: six colorful, slender residential towers that fit much more within the campus idea. The bunker was spared in that plan and, as a pond, became a central point in the area.
We designed slender towers with four 45 m² apartments on each floor. To work efficiently, they were highly standardized and rationalized: in fact, there are only two types of homes. When centralizing the technology within the residential tower proved possible, the technical space in the home was omitted, creating a beautiful floor plan with efficient access. The collapse of pipes is largely prevented, and as a result, the concrete can be cleanly recovered in the future during demolition. Only the concrete skeleton was built on site; kitchens, bathrooms, stairs, and facade were prefabricated and placed.
Monique van Loon, director of Jebber: “I think Arons & Gelauff architects are very good puzzlers who find solutions for small homes. This way, all these homes are corner apartments, making them very light inside and not looking into each other's bedrooms. What they also did smartly is ensure that there is little traffic space in the buildings; there are no large halls.”
On the ground floor, there is a bicycle workshop, a small Cold War museum, a café, a restaurant, and common areas, among other things. We use the space in the former underground atomic bunker for buffering the rainwater. This creates a rainproof project, with the layout of the bunker remaining readable in the pond. By rotating the towers among themselves and coloring them differently, a lively image is created. The varying height of the towers allows good sunlight on the campus. We chose the facade colors from the flowering forms of the tree species that are planted around the buildings. Therefore, the greenery and buildings match perfectly.
