year: 2007
client: Europan The Netherlands
site: Kop van Hasselt, Amsterdam
status: first prize
commission type: competition entry
team: Marc van Asseldonk, Auguste van Oppen

Since its inception the Buiksloterham has had an industrial character. With the Westward relocation of the harbour, however, it is now an area in transition. At the Europan site, the desired density is resolved whilst respecting the site’s industrial memory. Several formal urban blocks are placed in a gradually opening composition.

This competition entry demonstrates how several diverse living environments can be combined into a single, harmonious proposal. From the fringes of the site inwards, the composition is in a constant dialogue with its immediate surroundings. With a low density along the quay and higher densities towards an urban edge, an optimal capitalisation is achieved upon sunlight and views across the water. The ensemble’s seemingly casual composition ensures that the housing blocks will take part in a dialogue with one another and with the surrounding public space.

By opening the western corner, an open green space is pulled into the plan. Gradually, as the building density is intensified, the character of the public space becomes increasingly urban. Within the informal composition, gradients of public space are created with different spatial qualities. Through a freely interpretable public space and the allocation of free plots throughout the plan, an interesting tension is provoked between a robust urban décor and impermanent urban life.

While a multitude of different elements exist in the plan, they hold one another in equilibrium. Paradoxically, this equilibrium is able to absorb change in a sustainable manner. Employing scale, composition and material, the Kop van Hasselt is marked with a ‘collective icon’.