Recovering Bijlmermeer memory, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur
15/02/2017.
[Bijlmermeer - Amsterdam] The Netherlands
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
De Flat is an innovative renovation of one of the biggest apartment buildings in the NL called Kleiburg, a bend slab with 500 apartments, 400 meter long, 10 + 1 stories high.
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Lateral view. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Stijn Spoelstra
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Stijn Spoelstra
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Stijn Spoelstra
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Stijn Spoelstra
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Stijn Spoelstra
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur. Photograph © Marcel van der Brug
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Rendering. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Site plan. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Ground floor plan. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Floor plan. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Section. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Section. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Diagram. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Rendering. Bijlmermeer remodelation, deFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW architectuur.
Consortium De FLAT rescued the building from the wracking ball by turning it into a Klusflat meaning that the inhabitants renovate their apartments by themselves.
A great example of a brilliant recovery, in the face of the always demagogic speeches against the buildings of modernity, as in London with the imminent demolition of the apartments of Robin Hood Gardens, or the demagogic explanations of the owner of the Casa Guzman, or some responsible ones justifying the Demolishing previous, arguing that the buildings that resist better are those that can be retrofitted.
A great example of a brilliant recovery, in the face of the always demagogic speeches against the buildings of modernity, as in London with the imminent demolition of the apartments of Robin Hood Gardens, or the demagogic explanations of the owner of the Casa Guzman, or some responsible ones justifying the Demolishing previous, arguing that the buildings that resist better are those that can be retrofitted.
This project is an outstanding example, for many reasons, among others: for good effort means by citizen collective, (a collective that is committed to save the building from the knockdown-ball) by what it supposes of support to the processes of rehabilitation, and by which as means review on Modernity.
Description of project by NL Architects and XVW architectuur
Kleiburg is located in the Bijlmermeer, a CIAM inspired residential expansion of Amsterdam.
A renewal operation started mid nineties. Many of the characteristic honeycomb slabs were replaced by suburban substance, by ‘normality’.
Kleiburg was the last building in the area still in its original state; in a way it is the “last man standing in the war on modernism”.
The idea is to renovate the main structure -elevators, galleries, installations- but to leave the apartments unfinished and unfurnished: no kitchen, no shower, no heating, no rooms. This minimizes the initial investments and as such creates a new business model for housing in the Netherlands.
Most attempts to renovate residential slabs in the Bijlmer had focused on differentiation. The objective: to get rid of the uniformity, to ‘humanize’ the architecture. By many, repetition was perceived as evil.
But after three decades of individualization, fragmentation, atomization it seems an attractive idea to actually strengthen unity: Revamp the Whole!
It is time to embrace what is already there, to reveal and emphasize the intrinsic beauty, to Sublimize!
In the eighties three shafts had been added including extra elevators: they looked ‘original’ but they introduced disruptive verticality. It turned out that these concrete additions could be removed: the elevators could actually be placed inside the cores, the brutal beauty of the horizontal balusters could be restored.
On the galleries the division between inside and outside was rather defensive: closed, not very welcoming. The closed parts of the facade were replaced with double glass. By opening-up the facade the ‘interface’ becomes a personal carrier of the identity of the inhabitants, even with curtains closed.
Sandblasting the painted balusters revealed the sensational softness of the pre-cast concrete: better than travertine!
Originally the storage spaces for all the units were located on ground level. The impenetrable storerooms created a ‘dead zone’ at the foot of the building. By positioning the storage on each floor we could free up the ground floor for inhabitation, activating it to create a social base and embedding the ‘beast’ in the park.
More generous, double height connections between both sides of the building were formed creating scenic relationships.
Gallery illumination has a tendency to be very dominant in the perception of apartment buildings with single loaded access. The intensity of the lamps that light up the front doors on the open-air corridors overrules the glow of the individual units. The warm ‘bernstein’ radiance of the apartments is ‘obscured’ by a screen of cold lights. But what if the gallery lights worked with energy saving motion detectors? The individual units now define the appearance. Every passer-by a shooting star!
More information
Architects
NL Architects; XVW architectuur.-
Walter van Dijk (1962 The Netherlands);
Xander Vermeulen Windsant (1979 The Netherlands)
Collaborators
Collaborator (office).- Hendriks Hella, Zwetsloot Frank, Blom Martijn
Structural engineering.- Van Rossum Raadgevende Ingenieurs Amsterdam bv Building physics.- Schreuder Groep Others: HOMIJ Technische installaties bv , KondorWessels Amsterdam bv , De Wijde Blik
Client
KondorWessels Vastgoed
Total area
6.000 sqm
architectuur XVW
XVW architectuur was founded by Xander Vermeulen Windsant, graduated from the Delft University of Technology in 2004, in 2010. Its customers are private individuals and professional developers. Most of the construction projects they work on are residences located in the Netherlands, although they also work for foreign institutional and other clients and act as a spatial planning consultant for municipal and other government institutions.
A key element in their approach is the concept of ‘residence’, in the sense of staying in a particular place, ‘to reside’. Living, working, recreation or travel. They aim to create design that exudes a powerful connection between the spatial environment and its purpose, for which purpose the building and its architecture take on a secondary and sustainable role.
A key element in their approach is the concept of ‘residence’, in the sense of staying in a particular place, ‘to reside’. Living, working, recreation or travel. They aim to create design that exudes a powerful connection between the spatial environment and its purpose, for which purpose the building and its architecture take on a secondary and sustainable role.
Architects NL
NL Architects was founded in 1997, in the “SuperDutch” era, by Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse and Mark Linnemann, who had met and started collaborating at Delft University of Technology. Today NL Architects is headed by Bannenberg, van Dijk and Klaasse.
The three words “Wow! What? Wow!” embody NL Architects’ corporate philosophy, a reference to architectural theorist Robert Somol. He splits architecture into two categories. One can be described as “Wow! What?”, the other as “What? Wow!” “The first functions via the visual effect, the second via its content. They don’t like architecture that misses its chance.
After having garnered international attention with their first project “WOS8” in 1998, NL Architects received the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) Award (Rotterdam) in 2004 for “BasketBar” at Utrecht University. The jury was impressed by the casual architecture and “inventiveness with which the architects had approached the very banal remit”. In 2005 NL Architects won the Emerging Architect award of the Mies van der Rohe Award for its unusual hybrid of coffee house and sports ground.
In 2007 NL won first prize in the competition to design the Groninger Forum by popular vote. In 2008 the quartet once again caused a stir and established its name with “Sound Shower” at the Venice Architecture Biennial.
Their works are difficult to describe in few words, be they wild, humorous, experimental or radical. The crucial factor is always what can arise beyond the required design parameters and what unexpected potential it offers. They themselves describe their architecture as a “remix of reality”.
Their project deFlat Kleiburg is a finalist for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2017.
The three words “Wow! What? Wow!” embody NL Architects’ corporate philosophy, a reference to architectural theorist Robert Somol. He splits architecture into two categories. One can be described as “Wow! What?”, the other as “What? Wow!” “The first functions via the visual effect, the second via its content. They don’t like architecture that misses its chance.
After having garnered international attention with their first project “WOS8” in 1998, NL Architects received the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) Award (Rotterdam) in 2004 for “BasketBar” at Utrecht University. The jury was impressed by the casual architecture and “inventiveness with which the architects had approached the very banal remit”. In 2005 NL Architects won the Emerging Architect award of the Mies van der Rohe Award for its unusual hybrid of coffee house and sports ground.
In 2007 NL won first prize in the competition to design the Groninger Forum by popular vote. In 2008 the quartet once again caused a stir and established its name with “Sound Shower” at the Venice Architecture Biennial.
Their works are difficult to describe in few words, be they wild, humorous, experimental or radical. The crucial factor is always what can arise beyond the required design parameters and what unexpected potential it offers. They themselves describe their architecture as a “remix of reality”.
Their project deFlat Kleiburg is a finalist for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2017.
JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
José Juan Barba (1964) architect from ETSA Madrid in 1991. Special Mention in the National Finishing University Education Awards 1991. PhD in Architecture ETSAM, 2004. He founded his professional practice in Madrid in 1992 (www.josejuanbarba.com). He is an architecture critic and editor-in-chief of METALOCUS magazine since 1999, and he was advising different NGOs until 1997. He has been a lecturer (in Design, Theory and Criticism, and Urban planning) and guest lecturer at different national and international universities (Roma TRE, Polytechnic Milan, ETSA Madrid, ETSA Barcelona, UNAM Mexico, Univ. Iberoamericana Mexico, University of Thessaly Volos, FA de Montevideo, Washington, Medellin, IE School, U.Alicante, Univ. Europea Madrid, UCJC Madrid, ESARQ-U.I.C. Barcelona,...).
Maître de Conférences IUG-UPMF Grenoble 2013-14. Full assistant Professor, since 2003 up to now at the University of Alcalá School of Architecture, Madrid, Spain. And Jury in competitions as Quaderns editorial magazine (2011), Mies van der Rohe Awards, (2010-2022), Europan13 (2015). He has been invited to participate in the Biennale di Venezia 2016 as part "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d'Eccezione".
He has published several books, the last in 2016, "#positions" and in 2015 "Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi " and collaborations on "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d'Eccezione", "La Mansana de la discordia" (2015), "Arquitectura Contemporánea de Japón: Nuevos territorios" (2015)...
Awards.-
- Award. RENOVATION OF SEGURA RIVER ENVIRONMENT, Murcia, Sapin, 2010.
- First Prize, RENOVATION GRAN VÍA, “Delirious Gran Vía”, Madrid, Spain, 2010.
- First Prize, “PANAYIOTI MIXELI Award”. SADAS-PEA, for the Spreading of Knowledge of Architecture Athens, 2005.
- First Prize, “SANTIAGO AMÓN Award," for the Spreading of Knowledge of Architecture. 2000.
- Award, “PIERRE VAGO Award." ICAC -International committee of Art Critics. London, 2005.
- First Prize, C.O.A.M. Madrid, 2000. Shortlisted, World Architecture Festival. Centro de Investigación e Interpretación de los Ríos. Tera, Esla y Orbigo, Barcelona, 2008.
- First Prize. FAD AWARD 07 Ephemeral Interventions. “M.C.ESCHER”. Arquin-Fad. Barcelona, Sapin 2007.
