Rotterdam, NL | Amsterdam, NL
Part of a complex of student flats built in the 1960s on the campus of the Twente University of Technology has undergone a radical renovation. In the original set-up, twenty students were housed in each block which had a communal kitchen on the ground floor.
In the converted buildings each floor contains five or six student rooms plus a common room with adjoining kitchen. In the center of each block is a spiral staircase. The front and rear elevations were moved outwards so that the students’ rooms are somewhat larger than before, although they remain tiny. In stark contrast to the niggardly proportions of the living space, is the generous impression made by the complex as a whole.
Structuralist illegibility has made way for a crystal-clear outward form. The deep-set vertical windows give the white-stuccoed architecture a stately air. The marble cladding of the entrance and the heavy toughened-glass entrance doors lend the very basic life of a student an uncustomary distinction. Whereas the original linked cubes gave the impression of being part of an endlessly repeatable structure, the renovated blocks convey a sense of autonomy.
Location: Enschede, NL
My Role: Architect