The team with VVKH Architects, Dura Vermeer and Besix has been selected for the design and build of a five-story underground parkinggarage in the historical center of Leiden.
| Status | design 2013 |
| Architects | Ronald Knappers, Thomas Gillet |
New hotel formula in Hoofddorp
In 2016, we conducted a study on behalf of CTI (Control Towers International) into the possibilities of accommodating a hotel in an existing office building in Hoofddorp. The detached office building with parking garage at the Kruisweg 106 is part of the business park "de Hoek" in Hoofddorp. The building is a stone's throw from Schiphol and Amsterdam and is easily accessible by car and public transport.
We then made the design for the transformation into a hotel with 133 rooms and various facilities, such as a restaurant, bar and lounge.
Based on the study and design, the zoning plan has been adjusted in consultation with the municipality and an interested market party has been contracted: Centro Hotels from Germany. The design was then fully tailored to Centro's wishes. A completely new, trendy hotel formula for the Netherlands will be introduced in the building; the "Ninetynine-hotel Amsterdam", specifically aimed at the younger target group. Vitamin-E has provided the interior design of the Ninetynine formula on behalf of Centro. The new hotel will be a good addition to the current offer in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer.
The demolition work was carried out in 2017, and in November 2018 the transformation of the existing office building into a hotel started.
The plan ‘de Biezenhof’ is part of the new residential area ‘Waterrijk Woerden’ and is situated along a natural watery region. The urban scheme of ‘Waterrijk Woerden’ was designed by West 8 and refers to the traditional Dutch water cities such as Delft and Leiden. The design is made in collabiation with Klunder architects. Almost every dwelling is individual and has a specific connection to the water.
The plan of Biezenhof is divided in two parts: there is one block of family houses around a courtyard on the edge of the lake, and there is a row of water houses and apartments along a canal.
The buyers of the houses could choose between several types of houses as well as between four architects. Due to the possibilities in combining type and architect, not one house is the same. Every house has a singular character: the lake houses have a beautiful view on the lake, the street houses have a garden, and the canal houses enclose big terraces. In the public space there are a few parking places, the majority of parking places are organised in garages.
The houses designed by Knappers are characteristic because of the huge roof overhanging the façade. This contributes to the shelter-against-the water identity of the houses, and refers to the greenhouse glass constructions in the low lands. At the street side these houses are made of brick, which gives them a closed and open (to the light and the water) individuality.
House Hilde lies on the dunes, on the tourist route between Station Castricum and dunes. The building opened in January 2015 and combines a depot with a museum function. The archaeological center is named Hilde, a woman from the fourth century AD and found in 1995 during an excavation in Castricum.
Hilde house was commissioned by the Province of North-Holland. Every Dutch province is responsible for the preservation and exhibition of archaeological finds within its borders. The old depot of North Holland in Wormer was too small, the climate was bad manageable and it was only limited accessible to visitors. The building on the Zanderij in Castricum offers plenty of space for storage and exhibiting archaeological finds and collections.
Hilde house has a floor area of 4,480 m2 and is divided into a pavilion and an underground depot. The building is designed with the surrounding landscape. The draft refers to an old dune landscape (so called “nollen” landscape) that is much older than the current shifting sand dunes and can still be found at various places in North-Holland. In the aboveground elongated pavilion on the one side the main entrance, with desk, museum shop, and a space for temporary exhibitions, cloakroom and toilets are situated, on the other side the office staff. On the first floor is a small restaurant with terrace and auditorium. The elongated shape and the 70-meter roof of the building refer to the early medieval farms, as they have been in the area. The curved roof structure is finished with Corten steel sheeting as a reference to thatched farms. The large overhangs of the roof protect the interior from direct sunlight, which allows the use of large glass surfaces. The façade is decorated with stone from Morocco, fossil pintail squid in it, a reference to the archaeological feature of the building. This stone also comes back into the interior.
The depot is about 2,200 m2 and is divided into several archives and the centrally located exhibition space. The hilly “nollen” landscape is, as it were, pulled over the depot. By placing a meter of sand on top of this part of the building a stable climate is achieved in a passive way and only limited installations are necessary in order to maintain a constant temperature and humidity in the depot. By putting strong in design and construction on sustainability House Hilde has an average score of 8.6 on the sustainability label. In addition, the integration of buildings with the landscape certainly has a symbolic value: in the ground is the best place to preserve archaeological treasures.
In cooperation with Smits bouwbedrijf, VVKH has won the european tender to develop a new housingarea in district Dieperhout in Leiden. The project consists of 48 dwellings, 12 apartments and a care facility of 1500m². Start of the constructionwork is planned in may 2015, because thats when a current school will move to a new building and the site will be available.
