Manuelle Gautrand Designs Futuristic Housing Block for Amsterdam

Manuelle Gautrand has designed a 400 unit mixed housing block for the futuristic Hyde Park district in Amsterdam

The homes are divided into nine buildings that make up "thematic" houses organized around a landscaped island core. Each house stands unique, made of different volumes, materials, colors and heights. Formed around the idea of a village, the project aims to develop ambitious environmental goals while bringing people together to rethink urban life.

Each house in the new block development is the object of a different architectural work and integrates a range of new uses. Completion is tentatively scheduled for 2022.

House 1 / BIG BITE

The main volume is composed of white bricks. Glazed bricks make up the circulation spaces. This alternation between the white color and the iridescent effect of the glass bricks allow to highlight and value the composition of the apartments, including duplex housing. The main volume is composed of white bricks.

House 2 / STRIPES AND PLAYFUL HOUSE

The main volume is covered with large metal and colored panels. The circulation spaces are composed in white brick. This facade treatment creates a joyous architecture, in a panel of tones that echo the other buildings of the "village".

House 3 / BIG LOGGIAS HOUSE

The facades are covered with large glazed panels, like gigantic windows. They complete the large wooden loggias arranged around the building, giving outdoor spaces privileged to the occupants.

House 4 / LONG TERRACES HOUSE

The main volume is made of red bricks, reminiscent of traditional buildings in the region. Each unit has a long and wide blue metal terrace, which reminds them of the colors of the sky.

House 5 / EXPRESSIVE SCULPTURE AT THE CORNER

This corner building is designed as a black brick sculpture, flanked by large cantilevered metal terraces. These terraces sparkle in the sun and add to the expressive effect, to the volumes changing according to the angles and the moments of the day of the building.

House 6 / GREEN HOUSES

The main volume is made of folded stainless-steel panels. The outer terraces and glazed loggias, like small greenhouses, spread around the volume are surrounded by red lacquered bricks.

House 7 / BIG COMMON BITES

The main volume is composed of white bricks, an echo to the House 1 / BIG BITES. The generous common areas, distributed throughout the building, are made from green metal panels.

House 8 / LOFTS

This tall and narrow building is designed in red brick. Black inserts mark the circulation spaces and the separations between the different lofts.

House 9 / IN THE GARDEN

This "house" forms an outgrowth in the heart of islet, which breaks with the relative alignment of the buildings and comes to arrange an opening from the streets. This vast concrete slab forms several green terraces, thought like large spaces overlooking the inner courtyard. The main volume is composed of green metal panels, which echo this function of "garden" interior.