ENSCHEDE TOPOLOGICAL HOUSING

Mainly focused on the notion of living in a landscape and the redefinition of living in general, this project aims to maximize four households where the notion of sharing space forms a new concept of community. This design’s potential organizational system [landscape] is proposed as an organic, not a hierarchical system, where the needs and wishes of residents in all living situations can be made possible in a fluid way.

The four elements of the plots of the farm [clusters of buildings in the landscape] have been interpreted here and integrated into one coherent concept - a topological landscape which refers back to the "mound", a traditionally artificial increase in the landscape that protects the homestead against flooding. This re-entered topological undulation in the landscape gives each house its own private indoor and outdoor spaces, while a common space that is shared by the farm is created. This dual system of landscape and built structures creates a coherent spatial image for the whole area.

Instead of a house put on a flat landscape, a fluid and coherent system is developed. An integrated structure of an artificial landscape and built elements distributes the hierarchy of the various levels and creates privacy. The basic form and place-making principles are the core of the design concept and are used to create intimacy and private areas with varying values while a community is formed.

The depression and elevation in the landscape animate not only view and rooms, but encourage the residents to integrate the topography intelligently and with attention. Here one finds not uniformly distributed in a predetermined houses landscape, but an integrated 'binary' system of landscape and built structures. This gives each house an individual quality and creates a coherent whole. This design proposal focuses mainly on the ratio of intelligent home, landscape, and environmental focus etc., which results in a free, non-hierarchical system between farm and home. The result is a community in which one has the privilege to live in the landscape itself.

Credits

Year: Design phase 2009

Location: Enschede Twente

Client: Private