NIO architecten, Profile of the Dutch architecture firm NIO architecten
NIO architecten, Profile of the Dutch architecture firm NIO architecten
‘The twelve houses form an integral part of a soundproof embankment along a secondary road from Diependaal, an exclusive residential district in the woods of Hilversum. Despite its inhospitable setting and the clients’ initial scepticism, the futuristic, not to say fantastic, design of the houses attracted users who bought their houses of the drawing board, several years before delivery.
In the middle of an area dominated by the usual porched houses, gallery flats and maisonettes from the seventies, three identical blocks with a total of 33 ground-bound houses have been designed. Identical however? The residents have the choice to expand their house with an extra room on top of their roof shaped like an eye that overlooks the area. Therefore, the three blocks will never be identical after all. Secret number one.
With every house-building assignment, it is the art to escape the standard plans that are in the top drawers of estate agents and developers in a relaxed manner. That applies especially to this particular assignment in the ‘Tussen de Vaarten’ area in Almere, where urban developers have come up with a lingering block of houses of 400 metres long on the ‘Hoge Vaart’, consisting of 119 apartments with walkways on the northeast side to open them up.
The grass and marshland of the Botshol is a nature reserve and a unique habitat for unusual plants (wild orchids, rare marsh plants, cotton grass, holly-leaved naiad, stonewort, bog spurge) and birds (the buzzard, the harrier, the cormorant, the bittern, the red-crested pochard, the spoonbill). It is situated – a bit hidden – as an oasis in the midst of the Randstad. It is obvious that in the Botshol cannot be built, but also in the surrounding area of De Ronde Venen there are restrictions to new housing development or partial renewal of existing farms. This is why a lot stays the same. It is the art to create something here that answers the current wishes and demands of the inhabitants and at the same time fits the new plans with nature (the direct surroundings of the Botshol have been designated in 2000 as nature development area, as a consequence, the agricultural function slowly disappears to make room for wet marsh nature).
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