© Rook & Nagelkerke
HOUSING NIEUWEGEIN
J. VERHOEVEN, 1976-1980
Zwaluw, Nieuwegein
ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Jan Verhoeven
BUILDING TYPE:
Housing
Urban plans
ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Jan Verhoeven
BUILDING TYPE:
Housing
Urban plans
PUBLICATIONS:
Bouw 1981-6; W.J. van Heuvel - Structuralisme in de Nederlandse architectuur, 1992
At the close of the 1980s, while neomodernist architecture was infiltrating housing from all sides, Jan Verhoeven built this 87-house high-density estate as a final monument to Structuralism, by then almost a term of abuse. A number of housing blocks extending half, two-thirds or three-quarters of the way round an octagonal courtyard link arms either in the air or by means of gateways as a single labyrinthine entity. Social, subsidized and up-market housing all look the same in this sea of homogeneity. Outside, two materials predominate: red brick, with the inevitable sawtooth effects, and roofing tiles which even get applied vertically in Amsterdam-School fashion.